Mac Demarco live

On Saturday the 25th of November, we watched Mac Demarco perform in the Manchester Academy. It was a brilliant experience to have, especially considering he is the artist behind the music video we are creating. We were able to do primary research and confirm the age of our audience.

Director research - Eric Wareheim

Eric is famed for deliberately amateur green screen effects, absurd and sometimes shocking situations. His music videos are some of the most hilariously bizarre of recent years.

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-In this video, he uses an old camera and multiple transitional effects to create an authentic 80's feel. Imperfections, blurs, colour leaks are intentional and create a visually interesting experience.

This video is shocking, scary and somewhat repulsive. Eric uses many techniques to create his desired effect on the viewer.
- First person's perspective tracking shot at beginning builds tension as the audience feels they themselves are travelling downt he corridor and through a door, (rightfully) fearful of what might lay inside
- The green screen effect at opening and end on TV set similar to some of Mac Demarco's videos and is an interesting way to begin and conclude such an unusual video.
- Dim lighting is used well to create an eerie atmosphere 

 
-As is conventional in Eric's work, more basic and somehwat tacky special effects are used for comic effect. For example, the 'teleporting' and the last character's ability to fire out illuminati style triangles.
-Mentioned for previous videos, Eric makes great use of lighting. In the openeing, he uses bright white lighting to create a clinical, dull, souless environment. Later, with different colours from different angles, a smoke machine, swirling disco lights projected onto the walls and mini bulb lights towards the bottom of the frame he creates a lively attarctive atmosphere to contrast. 

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Alongside Eric's use of lighting, low quality effects and green screen and old cameras or filters, the sheer weirdness of his ideas are what makes his videos so memorable.

Genre Video - Ode to Viceroy

One thing that we liked in particular about this video is the use of a green screen within a scene, we intend to do something similar within our video with the use of a mirror with a green screen on. Similar to the picture bellow. Also we liked the use of the tape camera which gave it a certain look which we intend to use for our flashbacks but instead by using a filter on a phone camera.

Instagram Account

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Thanks,
Cuban Studios

Genre Video - Passing Out Pieces

Mac Demarco - Passing Out Pieces

Firstly, we liked the way the music began with a visual action. In this video, it is the shooting of one of the characters but in our video we would like to begin with the turning of a sand timer.

Mac uses either an effect filter here or an old camera to create footage filled with impurities and interesting colours. For the flashbacks, we will strive for a similar result.

This is similar to the green screen effect we want to display one of our memory flashbacks on, however we will be applying it to a mirror.

Genre videos - I'm the man that will find you

One specific shot we liked in this video was a close up with a complete black background, we intend to do something similar in our video for our flashback so that the viewer completely focuses on the scenario within flashback and to make it more like a memory as generally you only remember what happened while the place you are in isn't as clear.

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Genre Videos - Dum Surfer

We can draw multiple inspirations from this powerful video;
- Multiple varied lights are used to create the desired atmosphere in the room. We wish to create a different but similarly effective lighting in the chamber of reflection and can look at Krule's techniques for inspiration.

- As you can see below, the video employs a panning close up of a deers head on the wall to establish a feel for the environment when the video first introduces the room. We will do something very similar when establishing the chamber.

- Another close up, this time of King Krule's face as the video begins is very effective in getting across the ill, zombie like expression which links to the video as a whole. Our openng shot is also a close up of our main character's face as we feel this to be a powerful technique.See below.

Mac Demarco Research

Born: April 30, 1990 (27 years old)

Origin: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Genres: Indy Rock, Pop Rock, Psychedelic Rock and Jangle Pop

Mac DeMarco started playing in several bands during high school such as the Meat Cleavers and RnB group called Sound of Love. After he left high school and home he produced and released a  project called 'Heat Wave' (2009) with his band Makeup Videotape, all 500 copies sold. This lead to the band getting signed with Unfamiliar Records. After spending some time in Vancouver he moved to Montreal where he began doing work as a solo artist where after doing odd jobs to get money, medical tests and road paving, until eventually Captured Tracks signed him where he released 'Rock and Roll Night Club' (2012) which impressed the record label enough to release another album in the same year called '2' which was both critically and commercially successful.

Since then he has released a number of albums; Salad Days (2014); Another One (2015) and This Old Dog (2017).

 Over each album his style has changed for example his first one, Rock and Roll Night Club, is incredibly lo-fi and loud; '2' is where his signature jingly sound really begins to show; in Salad Days we begin to see the use of keyboards mixed with his jingly guitars; Another One is much slower and instead of being heavily guitar based it's more keyboard focused and This Old Dog features his most melancholy and deep lyrics while the acoustic guitar appears consistently. 

Mac Demarco himself has a very relaxed yet funny personality which has probably helped his level of fame hugely as he features in countless interviews on youtube for big music media companies such as Pitchfork. This constant exposure will help spread his music hugely and it's very much down to how likeable he is as a person, not only his music. This probably explains why his face features on 4 of his 5 albums as his face can often be seen all over the internet and therefore is recognisable.

Many of Mac's videos contain similarity's. For example videos for songs such as Another One and Ode to Viceroy use an old non-hd camera which uses tapes (analogue) instead of using a digital camera. This aesthetic is now instantly associated with Mac and his music and therefore we've decided to use this when creating our own video but instead of using a tape recorder we're instead going to use an Iphone app which is much cheaper and allows us to alter the filters level to suit our video.  Another notable feature about his videos is how none of them appear to be taken seriously and all have some element of comedy within like the video for Passing out the Pieces which features Mac giving birth to a plastic doll with a cabbage for a head. We hope our video comes of as somewhat funny itself.  

Video Idea - Chamber Of Reflection

Song Meaning:

Firstly the title of the song 'Chamber of Reflection' is also the same name given to the room where freemasons are initiated. You are locked into this room and left there for a certain period of time to reflect on things you've done in your life in hope that when you leave the room you have a new perception and can move on from it. The lyrics reference this throughout the song: 'Understand when you leave her, you'll be clear, among better men'.

Narrative:

Two freemasons escort the protagonist down a candle lit hallway with a door at the end, they open the door and the protagonist goes through it. Behind him the door shuts and then the sound of a lock is heard. The protagonist begins to inspect the room, and sees the room has a range of mirrors of all shapes and sizes all over the rooms walls; a basic wooden chair in the center of the room and a wooden table with a skull, a diary, a lit candle and a sand timer (the table and its contents feature in a real chamber of reflection).

 The protagonist heads over to the table and flips the sand timer and puts it on the table, as it hits the table the music starts. The protagonist then begins to wonder around the room and a particular mirrors catches his eye, he heads over to it and looks at himself. He then has a flash back, he and a girl (ex-girfriend) are sat on a bench talking, the conversation begins to intensify. It then cuts back to him in the room looking a slightly sad and he then shakes his head as if he is trying not to think about it. (he lip-syncs: alone again, alone again, alone again, alone again). He then begins to investigate the room more, noticing a compass and square with G between them on the wall (the free masons symbol).

He then sits on the chair in the middle and shuts his eyes, within seconds he opens them and he's sat back on the bench with his girlfriend arguing, this time it's even more intense, after a short while of arguing the girl appears to of had enough and gets up and goes, he's left sat on the bench and begins to lip-synch 'alone again, alone again, alone again, alone' (twice). A knock is then heard and it switches once again back to the room where the protagonist is sat on the chair in the exact same position on the chair as he was on the bench. The door then opens and it's the two freemasons, the protagonist then looks towards the sand-timer and it's finished. He then walks out down the low lit hallway into darkness (while the music fades out).

Shots:

Investigating room: panning close ups.

Looking in mirror: Mid shot perpendicular to protagonist.

On Bench: Mid shot to show both characters then close ups of each characters face to help show there emotion as the conversation continues.

Chair to Bench: Super close up shot on eyes.

Bench to Chair: Exact same mid shot which switches as with the first knock.

Walks out door: wide shot showing whole room in one shot with door and hallway.

Target Audience:

People aged from 16-30 as old enough to relate to isolation/heartbreak

Pros:

Mostly shot indoors (easier lighting)

Only two settings

Includes range of shots

Intertextuality: Mac Demarco and Freemasonary

Cons:

Have to change furniture of a whole room

Multiple actors making organizing a time to shoot difficult

Transitions from room to bench (vice versa) may be difficult to edit.

The Pharcyde - Drop (Video Analysis)

                                              

Overview

"Drop" is a single released by Alternative Hip-Hop group The Pharcyde in 1995. The music video was directed by eventual Oscar winning director Spike Jonze. This video interests me due to the sureal-ness of it, the video is actually a number of clips played backwards yet somehow the rappers mouths still move accordingly with the actual lyrics. To achieve this a linguist was hired to figure out how to pronounce the words backwards so that when the video was played backwards it appears as if they are saying the words normally. Although it doesn't always work amazingly throughout the video when it does actually work it looks brilliant and gives the video a really weird and interesting affect.

Here is a more in-depth video of how the video was made:



Genre Characteristics

The camera shots used follow the conventions of a 90s Hip-Hop video, throughout the video the camera moves backwards while the rappers follow and walk towards it which during that time was very common, a famous example of this would be N.W.A's music video for Straight out of Compton. The mise-en-scene  also follows conventions of genre, at the time baggy clothes were very much in fashion especially in Hip-Hop and this video is no different also it is set within the streets of city another common location for a hip-hop video. Although the Mise-en-Scene and Camera shots are conventional for Hip-Hop the way it has been edited is far from the usual. The whole video is played is actually played back to front giving what would be a very conventional video a complete fresh feel. This suits The Pharcydes music hugely as they themselves broke general conventions of Hip-Hop at the time through their music with the content of their lyrics being about broader subjects then gang culture and crime. Also the way the characters are acting is much less serious than the usual Hip-Hop videos of the time including lots of dancing around and at one point even stripping down.

Star Treatment

All members of the The Pharcyde are featured equally throughout the video but usually the cameras main subject of the shot will be the one performing the rap, this is obvious as they'll often come up to the the camera such as Bootie Brown during the opening verse. However this isn't always true as the video starts with a close up of Fatlip even though he has no verse on this particular song. This shows that the group has an equal level of fame throughout and that the director, Spike Jonze, believes the audience wants to see all members of the group regardless of input on the song.

Performance Style

As mentioned in the overview, the whole video was film backwards and then re-winded yet somehow their mouths move as if the music video was in fact not re-winded at all. This was achieved by hiring a linguist who taught the performers how to speak the lyrics so that when re-winded it looks as if they are rapping normally while their bodies and surrounding objects move unnaturally. This gives the video a fantastically surreal effect and helps it stand out among more conventional Hip-Hop videos of the same era