To begin with, even though I have listened to their music from the day they released their first song (in 2012), I was not sure whether they are signed to any record labels whatsoever, so I decided to message them directly over Facebook in order to ask permission to use their soundtrack.
The prove of permission :
(*translation underneath)
*
'Evelina Kotryna Vysniauskaite (me) : Hey guys! :) I started listening to your music so many years ago, way before I have moved to the UK. This is my last year in college before going to uni, and this is one of the last work I have to present - using the piece of music that I like, and the artist which preferably is not signed to any record label, make a music video, also all the footage has to be original. The song I would love to work with is Dapa Deep - Mine. The only thing I need now is your permission to use your track? And of course the final piece will be on YouTube with all of your names, official sites and copyrights. What do you think? Thank You!
Dapa Deep : Hey! It is very nice to hear, there is absolutely no problem, we definitely give you the permission and we are waiting for results!
Evelina Kotryna Vysniauskaite (me) : Thank you so much!'
This was a very exciting and happy day to get the permission from those talented guys.
Here they are, Dj producer Dou from Lithuania : Darius Beinoravicius and Paulius Bukauskas, started working together as one, by collaborating two different music styles and decided to work towards deep house music.
Darius was also known as melodic progressive trance music producer under the artist name : M&D Substance. Worked together with artists like : Above & Beyond, Andy Moor, John Digweed and etc. However Paulius was more a fan of groovy house sounds... Through working together at gigs, they found their own unique taste and style of music, therefore decided to start working together as Dapa Deep!
The music they create now has progressive house elements, also some trancy pads or plucks.
Music video is a piece of art work, a piece of visuals put together in order to either illustrate, amplify or contract the music (based on Goodwin's theory) which is used to attract the audience. So therefore the music usually goes together with visuals (including when images/shots are changing to the beat). There is usually some kind of relationship between lyrics of the music and the visuals.
Usually when it comes to the music video, it is either narrative, performance or concept based, which simply means if it is performance based it is usually rock genre music where you can see the band performing on the stage, you can see the crowd and other genre conventions. Narrative based videos now became pretty 'fashionable' to do, in order to sell the music, the artist chooses the direct which could create a video like a small TV film, and in the end there is a concept video which means the visuals might have no relation to the lyrics of the music at all, it might simply be just landscapes matching the change of shots to to the beat (Goodwin). This music video is usually used with house or electro dance music. Pop music videos usually are song and dance number based such as Britney Spears - Hit me baby one more time, where the music video is purely based on the main vocalist and the dance group (according to Gow's theory). In such videos usually there is a lot of voyarism (seeing people through reflections on water, mirror, through another camera or window). Well known artists even have their own iconography that they are recognized through, for example Britney Spears is always expected to be seen with the group of dancers, always teasing and having a lot of close-ups to her face, the use of sexuality in the video.
So to begin with, in order to analyse the video you must watch it. I have chosen to analyse two quite different videos, although featuring similar music in order to see how it works.
The first video Disclosure - You&Me is based mostly in concepts, as there is no clear narrative or performance (based on the theory of Lynch 1984).
Camera is always stable, eye level of the two main characters, therefore we feel like we are equal with them. Director also picked two very 'normal' looking characters, so therefore target audience would be able to relate to this, rather than see them as role models.
Director mostly used mid close ups, however when the music get quicker, there are a lot of extreme close ups used, in order for target audience to give the feeling that there is no one else around them, they feel like it's just him and her in the world, therefore basing it on three words used as lyrics 'You and Me'. Background colour was also picked accordingly to the main idea that it is about young love and passion, it is all about the pink world when you are in love and nothing else exists.
To make sure target audience understands the meaning, main characters worn no visible clothes, so when audience is watching the video, that would not distract them. And also it has been used to show the intimacy of those two individuals.
Lightning always bright enough to show how they look at each other, or how they touch each other (moreover you can notice they mirror each other's actions which simply connotes they love each other, and that was the main idea director wanted to show), also lightning bright when we get the close up of characters face, however lighting changes, flashing lights used to show the importance of the change in music. When the music reaches it's peak the pace of visuals changed by getting quicker, connoting passion rising between two characters. Also in order to show the rising passion director uses the open mouth close up, the guy touching girls jaw line close up, also lots of close ups of them kissing.
No significant use of any special or visual effects, however everything done with the change into lightning, focusing the camera on different parts of their body, or just their head. This again connotes the closeness of the two characters. Visuals always matching the music (based on Goodwin's theory) illustrating changes in music by changes in camera angles, and length of actual shots. However slow motion used at all times so audience would focus on exact things the direct was trying to encode into the visuals, and decode them in the way director wanted audience to do so. When it comes to Gow's theory, the video would be found as anti-performance video. The video also did not have it's artist's style or iconography, however the first thing we see is the icon of Disclosure which is a small face. This helps to build brand identity and kind of makes it as an expectation for the audience to always see the icon in the beginning of their music.
The other video I have chosen is the same video I uploaded on Director's study, just because his work, this exact video really made me think I want to make something like this.
So the first thing we see the same in this video as it was in Disclosure video is the icon of Disciples. Therefore audience is aware who made this song even if did not read the name of it before starting to listen.
The biggest difference of the two videos I am analyzing is that this video is purely based on narrative (based on Lynch theory), they use different beautiful locations to make it feel as if it is a short movie rather than music video (based on Goodwin's theory of inter-textual references to TV films).
Director also used a lot of diegetic (in the shot) and non-diegetic (out of the shot) sounds which also connotes it is made like a small movie. The main similarity is the use of slow motion in order to show as if it happened long time ago, and to make the target audience more aware of surroundings and the storyline.
They have used a variety of different shots starting with the establishing panning shots to show the landscapes (connotation of mini film again), but also used close-ups when the drug dealer was forcing himself on the local girl, in order to show the reaction of the girl, so target audience would understand what is happening. Mostly used empty frame shots, to show that there is no one and nothing else around them, just fields, horses and the sea. Loneliness and freedom connotation. Not all of the visuals goes together with music, which again shows that the visuals go more like a movie than an illustration for those, however in some places visuals do match the music very well, together with changing shots to the beat (in relation to Goodwin's theory).
When it comes to lighting, director wanted as natural lightning as possible, so audience would feel like they are on the scene, therefore used the light of the moon and the light of the car (fake moon, just the impression). All the colours used in the video were more dark and sad, although the whole video had like a greyish - blueish filter on it, connotation of the cold weather and freedom again.
More of the shaking camera was used to connote the action within the shot, so the audience would feel like they are actually there, like it has been filmed with a mobile phone or so. Makes the audience feel more related to the characters.
The change between the day and night (as the guy is much more protective over the girl, the day looks sunny and much warmer) gives us the feeling they know each other better, also because of slow motion it connotes that there was a period of time that actually passed before the drug dealer came for the bag that local girl took out of his car on purpose. Again shaking camera, and focusing on to the point not straight away makes audience thing like they are there filming it themselves.
In the very end when the drug dealer has been drugged by the same local girl he tried to force himself on, the angle of the shot changes, at this time its no longer the lower angle or eye level. Now the camera is looking down at the drug dealer which connotes that he lost the power in here, he cannot do anything to those kids. When it comes to editing director have used a continues editing, so therefore we understand the story better, we together with the audience are not aware of how it has been edited. Mostly cutting from one shot to another, no disolves used, but focusing from the main character to blur has been used quite a long.
When it comes to Gow's theory, the video is anti-performance piece once more.
The genre of both songs is the same - house / electronic dance music. The reason I have chosen to analyse two different video (narrative and conceptual) is in order to see how many different things with the same or similar piece of music it is possible to make. Both following the genre expectations such as a slow motion video being used, a lot of mid close-ups and close-ups, the appearance of the icon of the Dj/ artist in the beginning of the video, matching beat with lyrics or at least visual to music. Usually at least partially matching lyrics with me visuals as well.
For the music video director's research I have chosen the song Disciples - They Don't know. This song was directed by Luke Jacobs. This is one of his debut directed videos, he also worked towards the well known Rundamental song Not Giving In.
When it comes to visual style, comparing both of the videos Luke worked towards, it is obvious videos are directed by the same director. Editing techniques usually used the same, trying to match visuals with the audio and the pace gets quicker when coming to the chorus bit, same in both videos. Use of camera shots, like establishing shot plays a big role in both videos, as in Disciples video one of the most important things showing the surroundings, the use of empty fields and horses running around connotes that it's a very suburban, relaxed and calm area, moreover the views are amazing. Empty frame shots showing that there is nothing just them, giving the target audience the feeling of loneliness. However this is being contradicted by the drug dealer coming into action. In Rundamental song the environment is complete different but just as important. Showing how big are the crowds, so many people, but still feeling lonely and left out. Also the use of over the shoulder shots lets us familiarize ourselves with the characters much more, we feel like watching a small film. Also so many things happening at the same time as the population in the area is so high, but at the same time two kids always stays in the centre of attention. Coming back to the director I am interested in, Luke Jacobs works mostly with the well known music, however no specific genre. Drum N Base, EDM, also working mainly with mainstream videos. When it comes to his stylistic influences, talking about Disciples video, as it was his first real video where he actually directed it from the beginning to the end, he was happy to be able to film at his home town, as it was easier to make everything happen having a small budget, but good connections, also he was familiar with the surroundings. As a director he likes to do something different, purely based on good narrative, as music is EDM, it doesn't really have many lyrics, therefore it is hard to get the target audience right. But having a well directed narrative based video always helps. Writing a good narrative was the first thing to do. I like his job because firstly I like electronic dance music, but also because the narrative of the music video really takes you in, you want to know more. The use of establishing shots gives you amazing views, sunset was a great time for shooting. Using slow motion gives us the feeling everything happened quite long time ago, but also represents what the actual song is about: 'It's a gripping story - filmed on Luke's home turf, the beautiful, very cinematic Pembrokeshire coast of West Wales. Two teenage boys shooting rabbits on the cliffs interrupt a drug dealer forcing himself on a local girl, and that encounter, ending with the girl stealing the dealer's bag,ignites a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.'
The video starts with the pan shot of the paper doll close-up as a connotation that the doll will be very important in the video, as in it is being sang about the doll (use of props). The genre we have chosen for a song was pop, as it is a well known and widely liked music genre, it is easier to meet the genre conventions.
So the first thing we have learnt is that knowing lyrics from the beginning to the end is vital. Lip-syncing is always based on primary things like knowing lyrics to the shortest words. As it is noticeable not every member of the group knew lyrics as well as the main character which brought our video a little bit down.
When it comes to editing we tried to edit it very strictly shots going to the beat. As there is a strong beat going through the whole song, making it easier to edit. Also the pace of shots is just the same as music, making it more enjoyable to watch, easier to understand, matching the genre conventions. (Pop genre music videos usually either have some story line, but a very vague or doesn't have one at all, can be just dance based for example Britney Spears - Baby one more time). Adding onto that, pace gets quicker when coming to chorus bit, which just gives the feeling to the audience that music is about to reach its peak.
We haven't used a big variety of different shots, because me mostly had shots changing very quickly. The ones we have used represented the genre such as tilt and pan shots following the main character or the doll (as the doll was considered the most important thing in the video), some of the over the shoulder shots used in order to see the reaction from other person's point of view (in this case doll's) Camera usually kept steady, to make it look more professional, however sometimes followed one of the main characters (e.g. when dancing with the doll.)
Our video was shown more like a performance based - no story kind of video, as we had a girl dancing hip-hop which matched very well with the instrumental in the mid of the song.
Talking about mise-en-scene first thing is the choice of the colour of the whole video. Did not use too many effects on the video, but turning it into more greyish - blue with white colour made it look more professional, more retro, but actually fitting the song and looking pretty serious. We tried to centralise our video around the use of props, therefore the doll was the centre of attention all the time. Others used props such as a beard, hat, the mask and the crown. This mostly can be seen as being able to cover your real identity with props but at the same time showing your crazy face, the one living inside every one of us.
