EH - Similar Product Research 2

Solo Task - Emma Hall 9162

Sea Wolf – “Old Friend”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNSbrvhHPF4

An audience member watching this music video, according to Katz and Blumer, would gain some perspective on and be able to develop their own personal identity through its use of contrasting scenarios and lifestyles, which enable the viewer to make personal decisions about what locations they feel they belong in through its extensive use and variety of wide shots of two distinctly different settings. The audience, therefore,  covers quite a range of lifestyles, and age groups, and one the video’s purposes is to actively make the audience think about what social group they belong to. This begins immediately with the first shot of the music video being an establishing shot looking over a large city full of lights, in the pink glow of the morning, which makes the city look quite beautiful, and matches the slow tempo of the song. However, the next shot is a long shot of the main singer stood at a bus stop, which is repeated a few times throughout the first half of the video. He stands still, spotlighted by a streetlamp, whilst the lights of cars speed past in front of him. This shot has been under-cranked to speed up the cars into blurs of lights, which look busy and lively compared to the singer who stands completely still and looks very lonely under his spotlight. This shot used at the beginning singles the man out as the protagonist for the video’s narrative.

A repeated trait of this video is the superimposing of images over each other, with even more city lights being laid over the top of the man, making him look even smaller and alone. Similarly, the main editing technique in this video is dissolves, which give a further impression of images blending together in a dreamlike fashion, like the man is in a daze, overwhelmed by the business of the city. Amongst the array of city landscapes, is a particular shot of an aeroplane landing at dusk, with the camera at horizon level, and a single sparse tree silhouetted right of frame. This tree is a symbolic sign that relates to the man, as it too looks out of place in the landscape, alone and quite pathetic-looking, like it doesn’t belong and has withered in this location. This contrasts the healthy, beautiful trees seen later in the video.

We then see a series of shots of the singer walking around the city, following behind and infront of him with the camera, which gives a chance to see his costume fully, which consists of a green jacket and a rucksack, while the artist’s face and hair is scruffy with a rough beard. Using Barthes theory of semiotics, these elements could be seen as indexical signs that work together to create a representation for the man which doesn’t feel complete, as they seem to work in opposition to his setting. When the man reaches the countryside setting later in the video, the final piece of the puzzle fit together, with the trees and the lake matching the rough costume to show an adventurer. According to Stuart Hall, these signs have been encoded into the video, to be decoded by the audience as: the man belongs in the counrty, he is happier there, therefore the countryside is the better place. The way the camera follows the man as he walks matches the lyrics of the song during these shots “Old friend, come back home”. A particular shot is then introduced which will be returned to continually throughout as it is where the performance element of this video comes from. It features the singer centre frame sat in the door of a tent, playing the guitar and singing. However in its first incarnation, it has so many city light super-imposed over it, it is difficult to make out more than just the man and his guitar.

The average shot length through the verse is quite long, but picks up during the quick tempo of the pre-chorus, interspersing the image of the singer at the bus stop with more city images and short sequences tracking the man, for example walking towards some gates bathed in green light, then a match cut shows a side angle of him walking through them and down stairs. The shots are very varies in their colours, with nearly every shot having a different colour which dominates them, from the pink earlier on showing morning, to the green here, making the city seem very vivid and diverse, yet the repetition of sillohuettes and black/grey show it to be not what its cracked up to be. More shots flash up, that are all framed very well to show the man as a lonely figure in the business of the city, including one composed so the he is stood ¾ of the way across the frame, leant against a ticket machine, and another high angle, over the shoulder the shot looking from the man’s perspective looking over lines of traffic. This fits with the line being sung of “stood up on a rooftop on a night so clear, the lights from the city just disappear”. The matching of visuals and lyrics is one of Goodwin’s features of music videos, along with the previously described matching of music style/tempo with the visuals. This video also fits with the genre (indie-folk) of the music eventually, with the later emphasis on nature, and the use of the acoustic guitar around a campfire, which could also be an intertextual reference, as well as the way it plays up on the often used theme of city vs. country. However, with no female characters, there is no voyeurism in the video, and the director opts for repeating a midshot of to highlight the face of the artist instead of a close up.

The entire chorus is one long shot of the artist outside his tent, but now the superimposed images of the city are lighter, allowing the viewer to see more of the natural setting, as we begin to make the transfer from city to country. The long shot defies conventions slightly, as music videos usually cut to the beat, especially in quicker sections, but this example works, as the superimposed clips change and are very lively and busy, stopping the shot form being uninteresting. We the have a series of shots of a truck pulling out of the city, from both inside and outside the vehicle, placing the viewer and the artist as an occupant of the truck. Time elides here with shots cut inbetween showing the city, each time further and further away, showing the travelling progression, before another sillohuette, this time the night sky with a forest outline, which is the final transfer between settings. With the clash of night, which is reserved for the city, with the natural element of trees.

Levi Strauss’s narrative theory applies well to this video, with binary opposition clear between city/country, night/day and busyness/calm. It could be said that Kress’ theory that genre “derives its form from repeated social occasion” is also true,as many hallmarks of folk genre are repeated here, such as the bias towards nature. However, I think a more accurate assessment is Neale’s idea that “genres are repetition and difference”, as the addition of the city elemnts provide a contrast which develops the folk genre beyond simply the tree-hugging stereotype, by including the modern influence of citylife and technology (e.g. the ticket machine, aeroplane, cars).

The structure of the song matches perfectly to the structure of the video, as after a verse and chorus in the city, the video now enters the countryside properly for the next verse and chorus. The truck drives in, and a handheld shot of the interior shows the artist looking out the window off to the right, giving the audience space to see the view of the forest as well, while the camera movement also follows the rough, natural theme. A shot of the man putting on his rucksack stood on the back of the truck also gives a difinitive idea of the landscape, and with the sun beating down, puts a very positive bias on this site, as we see the man, his dirty truck and attire finally fit in.

The lyrics again here also fit the subject matter shown onscreen, with “Everything I was, I used to be” being representational of the singer returning to his natural habitat. Also a mid shot of the artist climbing a hill matches plays to conincide with “I went North” cutting to a shot walking across the frame for “and I went East”. Again the tempo of the song increases, and so does the action, with the shots being under-cranked, showing the singer setting down his map and then gathering equipment. The next chorus brings us back to the shot inside the tent, but instead of city lights superimposed, now more images of the counrtyside are laid over the top of the artist singing, which seems symbolic as the phrase “the lights from the city just disappear” is repeated, but has more weight this time around, as the man has truly left the city and found where he wants to be.

The temp the decreases for a calming bridge which accompanied by a handheld shot of a bird flying in the sky, which not only re-iterates the natural theme, but also is a symbolic sign for the freedom the man now has outside the confines of the city- “how we used to run out there”. The parallels also continue with a shot very similar to one earlier in the city section, with the man stood leant against a tree ¾ across the frame, while the under-cranking effect enhances the beauty of the scene rather than the busyness and claustrophobia it created before. As the song repeats its chorus as a crescendo that indicates the song nearing an end, the singer is shown in a medium long shot now stood outside his tent, and sat playing by a campfire, showing his happiness as he reaches a new, better equillibrium in the countryside.

Although not in body shape, the artist is represented as quite masculine in this video in other ways. The lone ranger image suggests an independence that is typical in male representations – alone yet perfectly able – though the singer is shown more able walking through the woods, doing something practical than in the city, where he breaks conventions somewhat by allowing himself to look vulnerable. The ability to navigate, put up a tent and start a fire are also typical boyscout activities that can be considered essential rites of passage to manhood. The figure is quite a rounded character, though, seen capable of living in the city and country, though clearly only fitting into one. Instead of showing, as O’Sullivan describes “a partially selected view of reality”  which would typically be the second half of the video where he is at home and comfortable, this video chooses to show the other, more lonely side of his life as well, progressing his representation beyond just a stereotype of a folk singer who enjoys playing a guitar whilst camping.

I like the super-imposing of different clips that goes on in this video, which keeps the image of one man singing from looking run of the mill and boring. This technique is definitely something I’d like to look at taking forward into my own work. The natural environment is a convention that is so strongly embedded into folk music’s image that I think it will have to be at least nodded to in my video, even if I choose to set it in part somewhere else. This video incorporates a different location well into the narrative of the video, keeping the tradition of folk music with the trees and the landscapes, whilst integrating the modern world that a wider audience can recognise and associate with. In this way, the video defies Adorno and Horkheimer's Cultural Industry Theory, which states "Media texts produce an obediant audience who are lulled into accepting the dreams and hopes offered". This video, instead of forcing it's own ideology onto the video, instead gives them a freedom to associate with either lifestyle portrayed, and although offering preference, does not dictate. I like this style of offering to the audience and is something that I think would be difficult to achieve without showing too much heavy bias, but is a good way of appealing to wider audiences.

'Old Friend' is a single off the 3rd album by Sea Wolf, released by independent record label 'Dangerbirds Records'. Being an independent company, the budget for the video was limited, but the frontman Alex Brown Church commented that "This video was a serious labor of love for me and for director Jeff Gardner. We did it over five or six days and nights, so what Jeff did was pure magic." Being a more established band, the video also received more promotion, with a preview clip being released before hand, which was reviewed and anticipated by music websites. The band also have a store where t-shirts and albums can be bought, but also, more uniquely, the albums can be bought on vinyl, which fits with the traditional feeling of the folk genre. To appease the fans of the indie genre, however, there are also links to digital downloads of the album, to remain current whilst having a nostalgia for the past. I think something unique like this is a good way to make the album stand out over others, and is something I will have to think about - making the promotion unique.