'Attracting Flies' by AlunaGeorge is a performance and narrative style music video, this conforms to the already existing Indie/Synth pop conventions that are commonly used within this genre.
Genre Characteristics:
'Attracting Flies' by AlunaGeorge conforms to the usual conventions of Indie/Synth pop music videos by combining a performance and narrative style. The use of slow motion for example is a huge genre convention for Indie/Synth pop this is used especially within the narrative 'fairy tale' scenes of this music video. There is also a huge focus on the female vocalist (close-ups for example), who plays the main character throughout the whole music video and each individual 'tale', the main focus on Aluna (the main vocalist) is another existing convention that is regularly used within this genre.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals:
'Little grey fairytales and little white lies'- there is a huge connection between these particular lyrics and the 'fairy tale' connotations made throughout the entire music video. This relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory of the relation of visuals to the song as the connotations of 'fairytales' are illustrated throughout the video by characterising the female vocalist as different fairy tale characters with an urban 'decayed' twist. However, the lyrics 'everything you say, is attracting flies' also creates another underlying meaning between the lyrics and visuals that creates the impression that the female vocalist is bitter about a relationship with a male and that everything he says is lies and 'rubbish', it also connotes that his words are like horse manure for example, that attracts flies.
Relationship between music and visuals:
During this music video, slow motion footage is used when the narrative 'fairy tales' are introduced and acted out (0.15-0.23). This emphasises the different narratives which are changing throughout the video and gives the audience a chance to understand the connotations between each 'fairy tale' and ensure they are not lost in the visuals due to a fast pace. The pace of the shots have also been edited in post-production due to the beat/pace of the song changing as it reaches the chorus (0.52).
Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
The footage throughout the video is mainly the female vocalist (Aluna) she is filmed in many close-ups and framed shots. This is because she plays all the main characters in the 'fairy tales' and remains the main focal point throughout the video as the only vocalist/performer in the video. However, this also relates to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory that women are objectified in film because of men being in control of the camera, this theory is heavily shown throughout this entire video as most of the footage is close-ups of lead vocalist Aluna. George Reid (the other half of AlunaGeorge) also plays his own part in the music video and there are some shots where he is the main focal point/only person in the shot. This is shown where he pulls the sword out of the stone (Arthur style) and where he leans in for a kiss with Sleeping Beauty. Close-ups are also used at the beginning of the music video (0.15-0.23) to introduce the first few 'fairy tale' characters Aluna plays. These alongside slow motion footage help explain the different characters being introduced to the video and give clues to the audience as to who the next character is if its not initially very clear. For example: the close up of 'beauty' on a necklace Aluna is wearing and then showing her accompanied by a beastly dog, connoting she is in fact the tale of Beauty and the Beast.
The female vocalist makes lots of eye contact with the camera in several scenes. This helps keeps the audience in tune with the 'story' going on in the video. For example in the scene where Aluna plays Goldilocks with the three 'bears' all of the characters in the kitchen shot make constant eye contact with the camera this is also the same in the Snow White and the 'Seven Dwarves' scene, this draws the audience in and also helps give an eery/scary feel to what should be a 'nice' children's fairy tale scene. However George on the other hand makes much less eye contact, if any as he plays less important roles in the 'fairy tales', he acts as the stereotypical knight in shining armour fending to help Aluna's characters e.g. pulling a pill (what should be a pea) from under a mattress Aluna's character is laying on.
As I have said previously, throughout the entire music video there are connotations to 'fairy tales' however these are not just your average childish fairy tale they have an urban 'decayed' twist on them which overall creates a creepy and dark music video.
The intertextual references to fairy tales are:
-Rapunzel (Aluna plays Rapunzel who is locked in a tower in the middle of London in what looks like a drugs sweat shop, growing her hair like the narcotic Cannabis and attaching it to her hair to place out the window)
-Princess and the Pea (Aluna plays the princess laying on top of several mattress', George pulls out a pill from under one- what was originally a pea)
Is the video performance, narrative or concept based? How much of each?
'Attracting Flies' is performance and narrative, it is based heavily on narrative due to the constant references of fairy tales however it still features a fair amount of performance. Although narrative and performance style music videos are a huge existing genre convention for indie/synth pop I feel it would be very difficult to recreate this in my own work due to the restrictions I have to work with (locations, equipment etc).
What have i learnt?
Getting a band together that are willing to feature in our video and perform is one thing but relying on their amateur acting skills to pull of a decent narrative story would prove very difficult. I am also on a very restricted budget and are therefore limited to locations and lighting rigs which I think play a key part in creating the fairy tale story lines within this music video e.g. the tower block. Some of the shots of Aluna I would also be unable to recreate due to the nature of some them, which would not be appropriate in my music video as they are heavily based on the male gaze theory. The costumes Aluna is wearing would also not be appropriate for my music video as they all fit into the 'fairy tale' narrative and the cost of them would be way out of our budget. However I would be able to emulate some of the shots of Aluna as there is a lot of emphasis on her as the main vocalist and only female in the duo (same as our band INFLUXX). For example the close up shots of Aluna in the character of 'Little Red Riding Hood' walking towards the camera and the long shots of Aluna dressed as 'Beauty' from Beauty and the Beast zooming in. Both of these shots would be something that we would be able to recreate in our own music video.
No comments:
Post a Comment