Red Thread Of Fate

After analysing the lyrics of 'Sober', I have started to think of symbols I can use throughout my music video, to help represent the plot events within my narrative. Considering the lyrics discuss a relationship that is failing, I decided to explore something that could represent this.

After completing the group discussion we decided that we wanted to include the theory of 'the red thread of fate'. This is relating to a Chinese myth as they believe that the gods tie an invisible red cord around the ankles of those that are destined to meet one another in a certain situation or help each other in a certain way. According to Chinese legend the God in charge of "the red thread" the ‘old lunar matchmaker’ god. Throughout a lot of Chinese media, and recently in some English media, the red thread of fate has been used top represent a relationship between couples. This has been adapted as the red string is attached to two people’s fingers. It creates a physical connection between them and shows they are destined to be together.

 We would like to feature it within our music video because it conforms to Barthes' theory that audiences appeal to things that have symbolic meaning. This is because within the lyrics Lorde says ‘every ribbon you use to tie yourself to me’ which shows similarities to the myth. In this case, the thread would be symbolism for two things throughout the music video as when I analysed the lyrics, I realised there was a double meaning:

Her relationship with someone:

Throughout the song, Lorde uses repeated personal pronouns to create the sense the song is almost something she has written specifically for someone. However, in the beginning of the lyrics, Lorde describes a relationship that is struggling but there is still hope. She says ‘but my hips have missed your hips’ and she calls them both ‘king and queen of the weekend’. This metaphor implies that they are still strong and relying on each other. This is juxtaposed to the lyrics at the end of the song. She sings ‘midnight, we’re fading’, ‘we know that its over’.

This shows the clear difference between a relationship that was spoken about with hope at the beginning compared to the relationship that is defined as ‘over’ in the end. Also, the difference of the pronouns ‘you’ at the beginning and ‘our and ‘we’ at the end, can again show a change in the relationship. It shows that at the beginning Lorde mainly focused on ‘you’ (whom the listener assumes is a male) seeing them as above her, as a form of guidance. At the end, the change in lexical choices shows the listener that she sees them as equal now and doesn’t have to rely on them anymore.

                                                   
                                                      Drugs and alcohol:

This is similar for her relationship with drugs and alcohol that is connoted throughout the lyrics; ‘kicks’, ‘a pill that could touch our rush’ and the title of the song ‘sober’. The song could be interpreted to tell a story of drug and alcohol abuse that eventually ends with lyrics that could have connotations of overdosing.

Therefore, the thread in both cases can symbolise something breaking; either the ending of a relationship or the end of life. The thread could be a symbol throughout the video for both of these situations by being strong and intact as the beginning of the narrative and becoming continuously more frayed and damaged throughout until it breaks at the end. This can also conform to Todorov’s narrative theory, to help represent the progression through the order disorder order.

Colour Palette Analysis

Within my music video that I will create, I would like to include a colour palette throughout. This is because it allows me to create moods and tones subtly, appealing to the indie genre audience who enjoy complex narratives and deeper meanings. Also, it allows me to use connotations of colours to help show progression of feelings throughout the video, backing up the lyrics. To help me see how colour palettes are included in narratives, I have decided to analyse Halseys 'Colours'.

Throughout ‘Colours’, the colour palate is used as representation for a relationship. This conforms to Barthes’ theory that there is symbolic meaning within music videos. 

In the establishing shot of the music video, Halsey is shown through a low angle long shot to be stood holding the prop of a polaroid camera. Within the shot, the colour palette has been chosen to be white and high key. This is consistent with her costume and in the next shot, shown through a cut. The white can be used to connote innocence and purity. The fact that when the male character (the princess in terms of props character theory, challenging gender roles) is shown to be wearing a white costume is significant. The fact she initially was surrounded by white and is seen to be watching the male who is also wearing white, suggests it is his she wishes to surround herself with. However, the lyrics at this stage don’t suggest anything to the viewer in terms of there being a romantic connection, so the white can also be suggesting neutral ground/emotions. 

 Although the colour palette throughout the beginning of the music video continues to be white, blue begins to be incorporated gradually. This is in relation to the lyrics as she sings ‘and it's blue’. The fact the blue is becoming more prominent within the frame can show that the focus of the singer is becoming the male character and is taking over the neutral feelings she had towards him in the beginning. The blue becomes the representation of Halsey herself.  This also conforms to Goodwin’s theory that there is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics. 

As well as the blue and white colour palette there is also a grey colour palette introduced through the use of a filter. Although this was used the whole way through the video, the filter becomes more noticeable when Halsey begins to sing ‘everything is grey’. This is because the props and other colours within the frame have been specifically chosen so they don’t contrast the grey tones as much. This makes everything appear darker. For example, in the head and shoulder shot of Halsey ,again holding the polaroid, the low key lighting, the use of a black background and Halsey taking up a small proportion of the frame all creates dark tone making the grey filter more prominent. The use of the grey has symbolic meaning of clouded vision or an unclear area. This can suggest that Halsey doesn’t understand her feelings for the male or if she isn’t sure if the feelings are reciprocated or not. This could also be a reflection of the viewer’s thoughts towards the narrative.

As the narrative progresses and the blue continues to become more prominent in the frame, the lyrics again create a relationship with the visuals. As Halsey begins to sing ‘you were red’. The colour palette begins to change again to create a more lilac tone. This can represent her creating a connection and fusing with the male character she described as ‘red’. When you mix red and blue you create purple. However, the fact the red is never seen within the narrative can suggest the selfish emotions she is having. This is consistent with the narrative twist that takes place in the very end of the video when the audience are shown that the person she was in love with was the father of the boy the whole time. The red therefore, that she describes him as, is used to suggest he is the dangerous decision. It also explains why the red is never seen in the palette as the audience are hidden from the true meaning and identity of the red.

How has this helped me?

After analysing the colour palette in this music video, I understand that the colours can be used to represent emotions and feelings. They can also be used to assist a narrative and create a deeper, meaning. This creates a more complex narrative which is part of the target audience we are trying to appeal to. I also realise how aesthetically pleasing a colour palette can make your music video appear. Therefore, I would like to practise creating a colour palette as I could potentially use it in my video. 

Group Ideas Updated

To collate our research as a group and to group together our ideas for our narrative we decided to have a group discussion about everything. We split this down into four main sections:

Brief narrative and red thread theory:

When we sat down the first thing we decided to do was gain a brief idea of our narrative so we could develop it. So we began by collating our favourite parts of our individual research to see if we all wanted to explore it in our narrative. The main aspects we decided were:

• We wanted to explore homosexuality but to prevent it from becoming a typical cliché narrative, we decided to add a plot twist of introducing a male character. This is because the indie audience don’t enjoy stereotypical plots and therefore, this challenges stereotypes. We then decided that to make one character of both bisexual, homosexual and heterosexual would allow us to explore all representations.
•        We also decided that we wanted to have a motif running throughout the video to conform to Barthes’ theory of symbolic codes as it appeals to the indie genre. Therefore, Liv made the connection that as we had decided to name our artist ‘Luna’ that there was a myth that featured a god with the same name. It also represents people being in relationships with people they belong with so it would be interesting to use throughout our narrative.
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Character types:

Overall from this we decided that we would have three main characters:

• The victim:  this will also be the same actress as we use for our artist as it allows us to make a more personal relationship with the audience and it also conform to our previous research. She will be represented as the victim as the person she was in love with and shared her red thread with, has an affair and she is left alone. She will also be the lesbian character.
• The princess/villain: the other female character within our narrative will either be presented as the villain or the princess depending on how we decide to represent her. This could be because she could be shown as innocent and helpless in the situation (as in who she is in love with) or she can be represented as the villain because of the affair. She is originally lesbian but the audience eventually realise she must be bisexual/homosexual.
• The villain: If the female isn’t represented as the villain, the male character will be as it will seem as if he has ‘stolen’ her of the actress. If the female character is represented as the villain, the male character will be less of a focus within the narrative. He will either be bisexual or homosexual.
• The other characters we decide to use in our narrative will be whichever friends/family we have available at the time. This is because they will mainly be featured in the first part of the video when the red thread theory is becoming established. Therefore, we could use the same actors/actresses without the audience realising. For example, we could use the same two people if we do a shot featuring only their faces and then another shot using only their hands. If we change the costume and setting, the audience will not know they’re the same people.  

Live performance:

For live performance we decided that we wanted to use the Lorde ‘Sober’ cover as our main inspiration. There was also the idea to use multi-coloured candles in the background to represent the colours of the LGBT community flag as we will be exploring this within the video. We ideally want the setting to be outside and to have live instruments however this could prove difficult because of the weather and lack of access to instruments.

Narrative in detail:

For the narrative in detail the main ideas we came up with were: 

·        to use an establishing shot of the homosexual lesbian couple as a low angle shot with the sky in the background. This could be using high key lighting to symbolise how happy the artist was. This can be juxtaposed at the end of the video with an over the shoulder shot of the artist looking at the heterosexual couple. This shows how the story has progressed throughout the narrative.

·        To introduce the red thread of fate idea at the very beginning of the narrative. We want to do this by showing the red thread on couples in everyday situations to make the artist seem surrounded by people who belong together. This will help create sad and sympathetic tones when she ends up having no string.

·        We want the bisexual character to meet the male character in a library. This helps to explore the representation that the bisexual character ris confused and trying to find herself. However, we will challenge this stereotype when she realises she isn’t confused and she has found what she really wants. She has discovered herself. 

What I need to do next:

To help me gain specific research into micro aspects of which we will include in our narrative I need to:

• Research the red thread of fate theory.
• Research colour palettes.
• Research how homosexuality is represented throughout other music videos. 

Evolution Of Lorde

 To help me understand Lorde as my chosen artist, I decided to research into the 'evolution' of her style, brand image and success. This means I can understand her image better and help me link it to the ideas seen in her music videos etc.

How has this helped me?
Overall, researching Lordes evolution has helped me understand the method used to create a unique brand identity. I have learnt:

• Although her image has changed over the course of 10 years of fame, the changes have been subtle and slow. They have also kept consistent enough to create an instantly recognisable style and image for her fans and other audiences. 
• Her style has changed in consistency with what is going on in her career. For example, at the beginning of her career, her style was very unique and gothic as it allowed her to be different from the current norm, conforming to the indie codes and conventions. When she released albums and content for her audience, her style changed to match the styling used within the content. Her style also became more modern and typical as her fame increased as there was no longer a need to be unique to create hype. However, the pale skin, dark lip tones and iconic brown hair was always emphasised within her style. 

This has helped me as I now know that when I create my own artist, it is important to understand what is going on in the music industry at that time. For example, when Lorde began her career, there was no other artist with the gothic and unique identity that she created. This means I should consider the market when creating my own artist. It will also be vital that I create a memorable brand identity that can be eccentric (conforming to the indie genre) as this allows me to attract a target audience more effectively. 

Our Song Lyrics Analysis

After deciding our song: Lorde ‘Sober’, I have decided to analyse the lyrics. This will help me understand the song and determine the underlying themes. Therefore, when it comes to making my videos, I know the vibe I’m trying to recreated through miss-en-scene and props etc.

Audience Feedback: Song Choice

When searching for our song on YouTube, we realised there is a live version of the song and the album version. Both songs fall into the indie pop genre but the liver performance is more mellow and slow than the album version. Therefore, to decide which song we will use, we decided to get audience feedback of which song they preferred and why. We sent a message to everyone we asked to find out what their favourite genre is. If they replied with ‘indie’ we then asked them to listen to both songs and tell us whether they preferred the album version (option one) or the live version (option two). The reason we asked what their favourite genre was, is because we only want our target audience specific feedback. We also made sure we asked an even number of males and females from the age range of our target audience to see if there were consistencies between which gender preferred each song. 

Option 1 (album version):

Option 2 (live version):

The answers were as follows:

females:

Males: 

Overall, the total results were:
Option one had four results and option two had six. The results were also consistent between which song the males and females liked as both boys and girls had four votes each for option two and three votes for option one. This shows that overall, the preferred song was option two which is the live cover of the album version. I expected this as it conforms to the indie genre more with a slower beat and more mellow tone.
the reasons people preferred the cover were:
• ' I feel a deeper connection with the artist, i can use the music to reflect on and help me think about the problems in my life, I understand the lyrics and i am able to relate on an emotional level.'
• 'It sounds more natural'.
• 'There’s more tension in the song, it feels like it has a darker meaning to it even though it’s the same lyrics.'
• Its 'slower' and 'less loud'.

How can this help me:?
I now know, based on my indie target audience feedback, that my target audience prefer the live cover. This means this will be the song we use in our final product. Moving forwards, I will be able to use this cover as a point of reference for how Lorde performs the song, how she is represented and begin to finalise our own narrative ideas.

Target Audience Profile

After my research into what the primary audience of the indie genre enjoy, I decided to finalise my own target audience. This means the decision I make after now, will all be specific to one target audience rather that the indie audience in general.

How will this help me?
This will help me as now I understand my own target audience, the future research and decision I make regarding my final product can be specific to this. I can also consider artists who have a similar target audience and concentrate on them, for example, Lorde.

Target Audience Feedback: Audience

After my initial research into which genre we should chose, I decided to conduct another survey with my group. This time, we decided to make it more specific in terms of gaining feedback to help us decide on our target audience and what they enjoy. Therefore, before asking people to fill out our survey, we asked what their favourite music genre is. We only asked people who said 'indie' to complete it, allowing us to gain genre specific research. We also made sure to ask the age and gender of the person to make sure that we can decide our target audience based on the responses.

The first question was 'What Is Your Gender?'. Out of the 23 responses we gained in total, 16 of them were from females and only 7 were from males. This tells me that females may enjoy the indie genre more than males. Also, of these females 13 out of the 16 were within the 16-21 age range category, along with 4 out of the 7 males. Overall, this shows me that the primary target audience that appeal to the indie genre the most, are within the 16-21 age range.

The third question was 'Who Is Your Favourite Indie Artist?' and to make sure that our feedback is relevant to what appeared to be the primary audience of the indie genre, we filtered the results to only see the 16-21 age category. This left us with a total of 17 out of 23 responses. For this question we received answers of: Lana Del Rey (5), Lorde (3), Sia, Amy Winehouse, The Kooks, The 1975, The Arctic Monkeys and Hozier. When we looked at which gender had chosen which artists there was a very clear correlation between the gender of the respondent and the artist they’d chosen; females picked female single artists and males picked male bands.

Question four was 'What Is Your Favourite Indie Sub-genre?'. The options for this question were: pop, rock, folk, alternative and other. The most popular option was 'pop' with 8 responses. However, the distribution was still fairly even between 'rock' and 'alternative' gaining 4 and 5 votes each. the other two options gained no votes. This shows that pop is the most favourable however, it is very varied.

Question five was 'What Type of Artist Do You Prefer?'. For this question there were five options: single female artist, single male artist, female band, male band, mixed band. Out of these options, 'female single artist' was by far the most popular with 11 out of 17 votes. This is consistent with the answers for favourite indie artist; ten of the responses were female single artists. The other popular options were a male band with three votes (again conforming to question three’s responses), and all other options got one choice each.

Question 6 was 'Do You Prefer a Music Video That...' with the options being: features mainly a live performance, features mainly a narrative including the artist, features mainly a narrative with other actors, features a mixture of both live performance and narrative. The most common answer was, 'features mainly a narrative including the artist'. The options, ' features mainly a narrative including other actors' and ' features a mixture of both live and narrative performance' received four and five votes each. The least common was 'features mainly live performance'. This shows me that the audience prefer a music video that features some sort of narrative performance instead of just live performance. They also prefer for the artist to be within the music video themselves.

Question seven was, 'Do You Prefer a Complex or Simple Narrative?'. The 'complex' option for this question received 13 out of the 17 votes. This was expected as typically, the target audience for the indie genre has psychographics of enjoying intellectual topics, things with complex and deep meaning, and controversial topics.

Question 8 was, 'Do You Prefer a Narrative with a: sad ending, a happy ending or a narrative that isn’t resolved.' This question refers to Todorov’s narrative theory and after analysing existing music videos, there is a mixture of all three options. This was reflected in the answers as the 17 responses were split fairly evenly through the three options, with 'a happy ending' being the most popular with 7 votes.

Question 9: 'What Tone(s) Would You Like to See Whilst Watching an Indie Music Video?', showed a variety of different responses. This question was a multiple choice option meaning that the person could pick any option they wanted. This means that the options were fairly even as people could pick more than one. However, the most popular with 10 votes was 'emotional'. This was also expected as indie music videos conform to Barthes codes theory suggesting that there are semiotic and symbolic codes throughout creating a deeper meaning. Also, as indie artists are typically represented as 'normal' and as social mediators (Deborah Holdsteins theory), they become more relatable and explore topics that the audience may have gone through themselves or can relate to on an emotional level. The least popular option was 'humour' which is also expected as it is not a code or convention of the genre.

The final question: ‘What Do You Expect to See in an Indie Music Video? was a comment box. Some answers were:
• Black and white because a lot of indie music videos have black and white in them
• I want to be able to watch the artist because I like them and want to emphasise with their life.
• Something that other artists won’t do like referencing controversial topics.
• I like it when you don’t see the artist and they’re trying to deliver a message instead of having the audience just focus on them. For example, in Chandelier when the actress dances to represent poverty.
• Something that has a deep meaning and not something materialistic and stupid like in pop videos
All of the responses conform to the codes and conventions of the indie genre and are what you would expect to see in a music video. The answers can help me to decide what to include in my video when I create it.

How can this help me?
Overall, the responses have played a big part in choosing my target audience for my music video. I have learnt that the gender that enjoys the indie genre the most is female and the primary target audience should be 15-21. The fact the majority of the responses throughout the rest of the survey were from these two categories, the responses will help me decide further details about my music video as I can use this survey as a reference point when making decisions.

Copyright Permission

To ensure our group have copyrights to use the Lorde song, a member of our group emailed her production company requesting the rights. Here is a copy of the message:

I am an A2 media student from the UK requesting permission to use Lorde's song 'Sober' from the album 'Melodrama' for my A Level Media Studies coursework. I will be making a music video as part of my coursework, and would like to be able to use this song without being copyrighted. Thank you for your time.

Kind regards,
Liv Mclean

It is necessary for to me ask for copyrights as it makes it legal for me to use the song and publish it publicly. Without asking for copyright permission, our music video could be removed from the internet under the copyright act.