Group: Evaluation Question 3

CK: Evaluation Question 4

Question 4 evaluation ppt from Grand_Hog

CK: Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation q2 from Grand_Hog

CK: Evaluation Question 1

·         Using Goodwin’s critical theory in relation to our production, we have successfully attempted to conform to the genre conventions of our piece. Being a folk track, rural and naturalistic themes are a regular occurrence in our video, with a colour palette made up of mostly autumnal colours such as reddy browns and greens. The costume we used is also highly conventional, with the male protagonist wearing a quilted burgundy coat, jeans and brown leather shoes, which also worked to bring the folk genre into a more modern setting. There were also elements of an older time, for example our pianist wore a blazer, and the bassist wore a tweed jacket.

·         As well as this we see a clear illustrative and amplified links between lyrics and visuals, and audio and visuals. An example of the former being one of the first shots in which we see the male protagonist dunking his head into a sink on the lyrics ‘Cold is the water’ which helps to bring more meaning to and clarify the lyrics, an example of this in a real music video by Mumford and Sons is in ‘Hopeless Wanderer’ where we see shots of the band aimlessly walking around, or ‘wandering’. An example of the latter being the shots of the guitar and the banjo playing in sync with the track, which was inspired by the music video to ‘Bloom’ by the Paper Kites, in which we see many examples of instruments syncing to a track. We also made the majority of our cuts on the beat, to add a sense of impact and melodrama to our production. We also made cuts off the beat at times in a bid to add to the sense of disjuncture and confusion as the male protagonist looks for the enigmatic female in the video

·         We also used a large proportion of CUs in comparison to other shots, with a repeated breaking of the fourth wall. This allowed the audience to properly grasp a sense of the emotional content of the video, and created parasocial intimacy between the artist and the audience.

·         The notion of looking is present in the opening shots in which we see the male protagonist looking at himself in a mirror.

·         Our video is voyeuristic in nature, as the male protagonist and lead singer of the band is given prevalence throughout the video.

·         The video is a fifty/fifty split between performance and narrative, as is the case with many Mumford and Sons videos, for example Ditmas.

Form

·         The form of a music video is apparent in our music video through the use of montage editing to cut between shots of performance and narrative. We have also used a relatively fast cutting rate (as appropriate to the tempo of the song) which changes as the rhythm of the piece changes in order to reflect the excitement towards the end of the track

Polysemic/ Closed

·         The texts are polysemic in nature, as it is possible to interpret the music video in a few different ways because of the narrative fuzz of the video, for example the relationship between the male and female protagonists isn’t completely clear, which means that it is relatable for audiences as they can apply what is occurring in the video to what is happening or has happened in their own lives.

Binary Opposition

·         A binary opposition is created between the male and female protagonists, particularly through the use of costume. The white of the girl’s dress suggests innocence and purity, almost comparable to an angelic figure. This could lead to the reading that she has passed away, leaving the boy alone. The dark colours that the boy wears connote loss and sorrow, however it is clear that he is very much alive, contrasting with the ethereal and enigmatic female protagonist. This boy/ girl relationship is extremely conventional for the genre and can be noted in 'Bloom' by The Paper Kites.

Semiotics/ Signifiers

·         Some examples of semiotics and signifiers are:

·         Water – New beginnings and moving on. Evident at the start of the video representing how he has to move on from this girl

·         White dress – This has multiple readings. It could represent the girl’s innocence which links to the lyrics ‘It will steal your innocence’ which suggests that by losing the girl, the male protagonist has lost his innocence. An alternative reading is that the girl is dead, and the white represents her pallid ghostliness.

·         Rural Landscape – A key signifier of the folk genre, this has connotations of an older time and a slower, more agricultural way of life, which reinforces the band’s metanarrative of being slightly off the wall and having their own style and musical voice. This is clearly displayed in both 'Ditmas' and 'Hopeless Wanderer' by Mumford and Sons.

·         Acoustic Instruments – Another key signifier of the folk genre, this again connotes an older time, with use of the banjo having links with bluegrass and folk music, reinforcing the genre and the band’s metanarrative of again being independent in their style. These are extremely conventional of the folk genre and are shown in the music video to 'Babel' by Mumford and Sons.

·         Colour – We desaturated our image and gave it a green-ish tint in order to give it a vintage style which is typical of the band. A similar use of colour grading to give the footage a vintage style can be seen in Mumford and Sons' 'Babel' where the image has been clearly desaturated. The colour palette is fairly vibrant, until at the end, as the female protagonist fades out, the image becomes black and white, showing how the loss of her has taken the colour from the male's life.

·         Cross – Our digipak depicts a cross in the background of the front cover, this clearly has religious connotations, which are a strong theme in a lot of Mumford and Sons songs.

Postmodern

·         Our piece is postmodern in nature due to the use of narrative fuzz, which adds to the videos repeatability and interest. We have also faded out the female protagonist in one of the shots whilst leaving the male protagonist in the shot. At this point the image also desaturates, creating a sense of postmodernism.