Michel Gondry

                                    Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry was  born May 8, 1963 in Versilles , France.He is well known for his film directing, and producing as well as  his  being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en sence. His film making career began with directing music videos for  french rock band of which he was a drummer in and his work caught the attention of a music artist Bjork who then asked him to direct a music video for himself. This collaboration resulted a creation of eight music videos all together for the artist Bjork.  He also worked with other artist such as Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines and many more. He also has worked on TV commercials and pioneered the bullet time technique which has become very populer.  Gondry also made adverts for GAP, Smimoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Addias, Polaroid, and Levi.

In 2001 Gondry directed his first feature movie, Human Nature, in which Spike Jonze suggested the studio to direct the movie. In 2004 Gondry received his first Oscar award for directing the film Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. Lastly, Gondry came up with the idea of placing several cameras around someone and taking a picture at the same time, this idea is created in Bjork's Army of me, music video
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The Chemical brothers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FyfQDO5g0

Links to videos:
Daft punk around the world :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9MszVE7aR4

Target audience

I want my target audinece to be women young and old,however the album itself is sutiable for people of all ages male and female. The reason i wanted it to be for all ages. This is beause I wanted for all my audience to either want to be in the shoes of my artist ie the women and for the male audience to want to be with her. For the younger audience I wish for them to aspire to be like the artist and look at them as a role model.

Beyonce is a good example of an artist with a wide spread fan base as she apeals to people of all ages , male and female. She creates matarial for everyone,to encourage ,empower entertain.

She even has a blog in which she communicates with fans through video uploads, photos etc

 

John legend is another artist with a good fan base which is similar to beyonce.

However he is a male artist so he draws female fan base who want to be with hi and male fan base who want to be him. 

Beyonce - Run the world -?

BBBTRH=Beyoncé- run the world (girls) analysis

link here :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmMU_iwe6U&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DnEg7D-Zaj16U5vR1VfNca This music video starts with a medium close-up of the main singer but she has her back the audience. This immediatly engages us and makes us  a part of it as it seems we are following the singer. With her back to us she is portrayed  as the leader, reminding the listeners of the title of the song “Run the world” This also represents her power and authority as she is in front of us riding on a horse.hence  the reason why there is more light then dark. Also, the camera is tilted upwards which makes us as the audience look up at her emphasizing her power and authority.      The camera then zooms out showing the audience the run down area signifying  chaos and destruction. However, because the singer is dressed in white, it could signify peace and harmony, so it seems that she is bringing peace to the run down society. As the clip goes on, this long shot again symbolises her power, authority, strength and the fact that she is above everyone else as the audience have to look up to her.  The long shot makes her look above the land and mountains, it is as if she is up in the sky to rule. The rule of three is being used here as she is in the centre of the shot, making her the predominant focus of the shot. By wearing white and sitting on top of the black horse, this symbolises evil being taken over by purity and goodness hence white over black. The vandalised car and bull are used to introduce the men in the song as they are usually used to portray masculinity. The car says ‘revolution’ signifying the war destruction, and the women's rebellious attitude. The fact that it is in red stands out  to the audience as it is surrounded with dim colours. The red shows a contrast as it signifies love and danger; these are the two emotions which could be perceived as extreme.The bull symbolises the women's power which is eccentric because bull fighting is a masculine sport  so the audience would associate this with the men. 








 The clip goes onto a medium shot of a woman coming out of a cage. This links to voyeurism as she is wearing short clothes and is in a cage. This signifies the stereotypical view of a woman from a mans perspective. There is a contrast between the spacing and the element used; the woman is placed on the right hand side of the shot so it seems as if she is about to escape, however, as she is inside a cage which represents her isolation and entrapment.     

The use of the mise-en-scene in this wide shot is symbolising the power and unity of women as they are all standing together like an army. Their Gestures are feminine yet they are portraying their strength and determination to face anything and everything. The lion represents bravery and again reminds the audience of the title because lions are king of the jungle, the same way the women are ruling the world.The lighting in this video is quiet dark highlighting the destruction and chaos the girls have caused. Reading the title, you would expect the video to have bright colours, however, it is a complete contrast of a stereotypical view from a woman which makes it interesting for the viewers to watch. In the first few shots, we are shown the main singer in an area which has dull and dim colours with low lighting in which the audience can constantly see the sunset. This could represent the girls bringing a new beginning for the world and an end to the destruction caused by men. An example of a powerful shot with the use of different lighting is when the singer is standing on the car. Half  of this medium  wide shot  is light and the other half is dark which could represent the good and evil in this world. Her body language looks as if she is trying to come out of the dark side and bring goodness into the world  

Digi pack

Above you can see my Front album cover

Anamatic

Above is an anamatic that I completed on Beyonce Song Diva.

Rough cut

This is my rough cut, I used some clips from the movie Superman Returns.


Disclamier: I do not own the clips from the movie . These clips are used for educational persposes only. All rights of the Clips go to the Creator of Superman returns.

Lip sycing

 Above and a Lip syncing trial of which was very simple.

Brief

For my coursework I have to complete a promotional package for an album release.This includes a music video alongside a digipak with all the information that is needed. I am also require to produce a magazine advertisement for my digipak. Above is an example of a digipak from Rihanna's Talk that talk album.

Brief overview of Music video

In my music video the artist is a young women and has now come to realise how all of her past  relationships have not been what she wanted  and she is now wanting to find true love, from a man who will appreciate her for who 

 In this scene she is thinking about all the fail relationships and all the mistakes she has made in her life and how everything could be different if she had the one man that loved her,which is similar to the scene below, However in the scene before she has change an now she know what it is she wants.

This shot is off the artist him her house.Shes in the comfort of her own home and she is watching a movie(Superman returns, and she is thinking about how she wants a man like superman.A man who is at afraid to apologies for his mistakes and take acre of her and treat her the way she deserves.A true gentle man.  

This is a shot that is at the end of the video after watching the movie she receives a call from her on and off boyfriend and she has finally realised that she deserves allot better  so she ignores the call and walks out of the room.

Props used

 The images above are of the props i used. I used these props in order to create a comfortable familiar feeling to the whole video all these things are things that ever audience member would own so it does not  alienate them too much from the life of the artist.

Final cut -Superman

Here is my final music video to Nicoya Polar -Superman.
Although  it seemed i would never get it the way i wanted it to look I, think i managed to create  decent R&B music video. I hope you enjoy!

Evaluation question 1 -In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?

After completing As media made the decision to carry on to A2 media as i enjoyed the whole processes. Although at A2 the task proved a little but tricky i still thoroughly enjoyed creating this project. The task at hand was to create a music video alongside a digipak and magazine advertisement with evidence of the planning as we go along. In my product i feel like i challenged as well as developed the forms and conventions of real professional media products.

Challenges
In my product i did not have many shots of my artist close ups whilst singing.This is one think that would have been expected of an R&B music video However i wanted to focus on the narrative simply because i felt that there was a bigger story to tell through the narrative and that what i wanted the audience to focus of before anything else.  Also in a professional R&B music video the artist,especially female artist would be expected to have more than one outfit change as this would show their success. In my music video I wanted to make the artist allot more relatable to to the target audience, I wanted them I see that although she is successful she's just like the rest of us. Goodwin's theory states that artist use voyeurism (that is the exploitation of women (or male) in order to attract there desired audience. Female artist will wear very provocative clothing or lack thereof and this would attract the male audience and possibly encourage them to want a body like the artist and admire  her confidence of showing her body in the way she does. I also used footage from the movie "Superman Returns" I did this in order to help the narrative of the song . Not only was it helpful but it further the devolved the wants and need of my artist.

Development

I didn't want to drift too far from the genre of R&B so I decided to keep allot of the forms, for example by having visual that were linked with the images of the screen. I kept this the same in order for the viewer to understand what the artist was trying to express, I also didn't want to divert attention from the artist message in the song. In addition  I also tried hard to get a variety of locations.

Analysis of Alicia Key - Diary of Alicia Keys Album

Before  I Started on my own digi-pak, I searched other professional  digi-pak i that i would later  draw ideas from and others that i didn't think would fit with the image i wanted to portray.



Alicia Keys 
Album name- Diary of Alicia keys 

I really like this digi-pak because it wasn't just a picture of the artist but it also reflects her style ,personality and ability. The picture of the piano  is there to remind the audience that  she can play a music instrument and and  maybe even connotative that she composes her own music which makes her music very personal which is something that can draw her target audience. The filter of the white small dots over the image makes it seem like the image is old which links in the the name of the album being ' Diary of Alicia keys'. This makes her target  audience feel like they are on the journey with her and involve them in her. Although it is only half of her face in the front cover it is very effect as the piano is dominating the image which shows the audience that her music is whats more important and again remind they audience that she is Alicia keys as it is her brand. 
 The Image of the keys on her CD reinforce her own name and could possibly be  link with her music being   the key into her life story. (they key to her diary) 
The font on the CD itself ,front and back is all the same which makes the it uniform and very professional 
I really liked this particular Digi-pak as it tells the audience so much about the artist before they have even listened to her music. 

Filming Schedule

I am planning on filming during the week that is coming as the weather is exactly how i want it to be.

Monday- 12-3pm - filming some of the  house sences 

-watching tv -singing standing by the window  part 1.

Tuesday -2-5 pm - filming park scenes  and asking couples is they don't mind being filmed for our music video. 

Wednesday-film scenes in the house (different house) part 2

Thurdsday- Review footage 

Friday- film scenes of  couple arguing  in the house, and the guy leaving.

Beyonce -Digipak

Front cover
Beyonce's 'I am SASHA FIERCE' album has a very interesting twist to it.In this album Beyonce introduced  her fans to Sasha fierce(Her Alter Ego)
Above is the front cover of  her album. The front cover is a close up on her face and is very striped a simple , she has minimal make on and no jewelry, her expression is simple   and she is looking directly at the audience. This is image is reflecting her self as a wife and working female linking with some of the songs on the album such as ; Broken hearted girl', 'Halo','Best thing I Never Had' , etc . In all these songs she talks about very personal issues that anyone could be going through which helps her stay in-touch with her audience.      

Back cover
Contrasting with the front cover in this image ,Beyonce is no longer in a close up shot however she is in a  wide shot with her whole body in the photo. This is her alter ego  to which we can see a clear distinction between the front and back covers of the album. In this image she is wearing heavy make up this could is connotative  of her stage look and presence. As well as her  her aim to hide behind her alter ego by wearing excessive make up. Also this is telling the audience that she is allot more confident when she has make up on , this is show through her body language. She is laying on the floor in a very difficult pose also showing that once she is in character she is able to do anything. She is wearing a leotard with allot of skin on display this not only inspires her female fan base to want to be like her but again highlights the difference between herself and Sasha.

Copy of Exclusive album cover 
I think that This digi-pak is one of the most effective in regards to the images used a, fans her more in touch with Beyonce as a real women. Her alter ego is almost a way for her to deal with the nerves without actually dealing with them. Emphasising that she, just like the rest of the women in the world needs an escape from her fears and a chance to just let go and enjoys.