My Opinions About: "Information" by Brian Korteling

My Opinions About: 
"Information" by Brian Korteling

My group's chosen song:

My opinions about our unsigned British artist/band's song:

To begin with, I like how Brian only uses an acoustic guitar for an instrument and nothing else. This could benefit my group's music video because we could possibly use many close ups and extreme close ups of a guitar being played. By doing this, we'll be establishing a relationship between the singer and the musical instruments, and even the audience, since then they'll have an "insight" into the song, the artist's style of music and genre.

Who or what does it remind me of?

I personally enjoy Brain's singing style as it reminds me very much 
of an artist called "Steve Harley" who is most recognized for his popular singles: "Make me Smile (Come up and see me)" and "(Somebody call me) Sebastian".

Song's such as his called "No Rain on This Parade" and "When the Halo Ships" from his album "The Quality of Mercy" are a few examples which I am reminded of when listening to "Information" by Brian due to their singing styles.

Unfortunately, I am unable to display "No Rain on This Parade" and "When the Halo Ships" as there is no audio available on the internet or YouTube which I could enable onto My blog. However, you're able to listen to samples of these two songs and others: HERE


On a more personal note, I often listen to Steve Harley's music and have been given the chance to actually meet him during one of UEA's (Norwich) live-music nights on the 17th/11th/2010. I enjoy Steve Harley's music as I find the lyrics rather "catchy", I also find that Brain's lyrics have a similar style and because of this, his song has appealed to me in this way.


Don't believe me? Take a look at the photographs below of myself holding my signed albums and ticket which I received on the night:

Click to view photograph :

Chosen Song - "Information" by Brian Korteling

"Information" by Brian Korteling

Lyrics of "Information" :

"Information" by Brian Korteling

I was wishing, I was wishing too bad,

Never moving, glued to something you had,

I think I'm jumping blindly from the life raft,

Think you'd stay and I hope you have a good life,

Nothings do'n and no ones getting sleepy,

It's not just the reason for leavin',

If this is gunna turn out well,

Sure as hell ain't me to tell,

Information, strength and inspiration,

Information, give me information,

Hey sugar, you're pullin' on my leaver, 

I'm so busy, flash ya like a cleaver,

Chopping wood never felt like such a waste,

Fill your pockets and get f**ked your sad case,

I don't need your prods and motivation,

At the door without a new vocation,

Tell your troubles to someone else I'm not stuck,

Tell em' if you can, I wish you the best of luck,

If this is gunna turn out well,

Sure as hell ain't for me to tell,

If things don't turn out fine,

At least it's better than your waste of time

Information, stregnth and inspiration,

Information, give me information,

Keep changing the place where you drew the line,

A little every time, 

Til' that line is indecipherable,

Keep complaining ever-changin' how you lead your life,

If it's worth the straft,

Maybe you should make yourself comfortable,

If this is gonna turn out well,

Sure as hell ain't me to tell,

Information, stregnth and inspiration,

Information, give me information.

Our group has chosen this song because we believe it has great potential. After emailing Brian, he's gratefully given us permission to use his song as well as possibly using him within the group's music video as mentioned in my previous post which can be viewed HERE.

We find the lyrics catchy and easy to 'beat' to, because of this, we believe its an ideal choice to use as our song from an unsigned artist/band since we hope the catchy lyrics will appeal to different audiences and make them listen/view our music video.

I've had a few ideas already (as mentioned before in my post), one of these is about an animation with newspapers as the backdrop (newspapers are a source of "information"), after all, by doing this we'll be linking both lyrics and image together. This way we'll be successfully applying one of Andrew Goodwin's analysis theory within our video - "There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals" (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting).

If my group chooses to follow and develop my idea, then I believe it has great potential since Sam has replied to Brian's last email asking:

"Do these lyrics have any special meaning to you or significance?".

Brian has then replied and informed us that the song has a meaning and the lyrics's have a significance. He's told us that the song is about "leaving a situation with no clear idea if it is the right thing to do or not but going on gut feeling".

If you wish to view Sam's email as well as Brian's response, please click on the "spoiler bar" below to display both:

Click to view Sam's email and Brian's response :

Potential Artist/Band [002]

Potential Artist/Band [002]
"Day and Age" by Ben Medlock

I've found an artist called "Ben Medlock" by searching on "http://www.unsignedbandweb.com". I find his music catchy due to his story-like lyrics and his take on an acoustic-pop style of genre.

Penitential Ideas:

I especially like the intro to "Day and Age", it's just like an old record playing and catching on something to make it jump or pausing or even if a DJ is playing the song on a mixing table - a nice feature to start a song and possible idea to start the music video if we chose his song.

Honestly, any of his songs could be a possible track to use, but I would prefer to use "Day and Age" because it has a lively and up-beat sore and feel as mentioned above.

- http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/music/bands/294/ -

Lyrics of "Day and Age" :

Ben Medlock - "Day and Age"

What can I say,

To the girl with her hand on a crimson bouquet,

My heart on a plate,

Did you take me or did I give me away,

And then I said to you,

Remember the policy we drew?

Remember the smile you wore on that Tuesday?

You blew me away,

You threw me away, you threw me away,

You assuming the blame ,

Well I guess that's the way, in this day and age,

In this day and age,

So you called me,

Or so we say,

You and I yesterday,

Just a day ago,

Just an age ago,

Leaning back in my chair,

Nothing better to do so I'll sit here and stare,

I know she's over there,

But I'm so underprepared, so underprepared,

And then I said to you,

Here lies a fallacy, it's true,

Remember the look you gave me that day,

Coming in, as a friend,

So I'll see you again, I'll see you later then,

So easy to pretend,

I guess it's down to the if, the if and the when,

The if and the when.

Email and Response - Potential Artist [001]

Email and Response - Potential Artist [001]

Our group has emailed Brian (Williams) Korteling - one of the potential unsigned artists for A2 Media.

Brian is the artist of "Information" - the song which I found on Unsigned.com a few days ago. We've informed him that we have to create a music video for an unsigned British artist/band and we're interested in using one of his songs, "Information", and also possibly using him as a cast member within the video if he is interested. This is the reply which our group revised below:

(I have censored emails and other personal information).

Click to View Response:

Continued Communication

While researching and planning, I've continued to communicate with my follow group members. Sam took a print screen of the response but was unsuccessful since it was barely readable, I then asked him to forward the email response to me so I could create an enlarged version which is to a readable standard (which the result can be seen above in the "spoiler bar").

Please click on the image (on right) to view the response of the same email, but this time on our Facebook Group page. As you can see, I've posted the enlarged censored version below Sam's post as requested by my group.

One Email Only:
Sam will be emailing Brian in the future as our group feels Brian is familiar with Sam's email. We feel that it is best to continue using Sam's email for the time being. This is because we do not wish to overwhelm Brian or make him feel intimidated by the vast amount of questions and emails from all four of us - we can simply stick to using one email as he'll be used to. Of course, when Sam is writing out these emails, they'll include all our questions from each group member until we feel we should email him separably. Of course, it's certain that after we've all introduced ourselves, we'll all be emailing Brian depending if hes our chosen artist or not.

Potential Artist/Band [001]

Potential Artist/Band [001]

"Information" by Brian Korteling 

Brian's website: http://briankorteling.co.uk/
Website/Sourse: http://www.unsigned.com/briankorteling

While researching artists and bands on Unsigned.com, I came across Brian Korteling. I then informed my other group members on the Facebook Page which Sam Wight created and got positive feedback afterwards as seen on right: (Click image to view a readable version).

Potential Ideas:

As mentioned in the Facebook image above, when I listened to this song for the very first time I imagined the music video to take the form of an animation.

I believe that the background would be based on newspapers since the song's chorus asks the audience for "Information" ("Give me information") - Hence the song's title. This would feel appropriate since newspapers are a source of information.


Due to the song's pace and rhythm, the style of this animation and FPS (frames per second) would be similar to the title sequence of an informal news-base conic show called "Russell Howard's Good News". Here is the title sequence of the show on right:

If you didn't know "Russell Howard's Good News" is actually a T.V show, then it would of felt like viewing a music video, since the title sequence of the show adopts a similar style to music videos such 
as A-Ha's "Take on Me". If we choose to use this song, the above 
are a few potential ideas to explore in the future.

Music Videos Which I Find Interesting

Music Videos Which I Find Interesting

The following music videos vary in a number of different ways. Each of them has it's own unique style and presentation of the band/artist within the clips. I find this interesting and also how the image of the band/artist affects the action within the mise-en-scene, having said this, this is why I have chosen these three music videos in-particular as they present the style of music which the band/artist creates and their image. The artists/bands in their music videos are also ones I like listen to.

Remy Zero - "Save Me"

I find it interesting how the music video is edited. The way in-which the character in the suit is walking forwards whereas everyone else is walking backwards is very cleaver. The added images projected onto a green screen behind the band represent the song's pace and band image. Also, how the music video establishes specific shots onto specific parts of the song's lyrics, for example, during the beginning of each "somebody save me" chorus, the camera and image display a long shot zoom onto the lead singer each time.

The Von Bondies - "C'mon C'mon"

I find it interesting how the male character is walking through different scenes yet the camera is a constant panning action throughout. Also, another rather interesting aspect of this music video is the bar section at the bottom of the clip - It doesn't change size or ratio until nearer the ending, this is when the band can be fully displayed within the mise-en-scene when the character walks into the same room.  This is rather peculiar for a music video to do this.

On top of this, I find the concept of this video very interesting. As a musician myself, I can do some music reading but I mostly play off by ear. However, these rooms which the male character is walking through could represent the different bars on a sheet of music - the bar lines are the doorways which the character walks through, just as if he's a musical note passing through each section (measure).

In this context, we see the male character moving along the bar to get to the end of the song - much like a sheet of music - you read the notes within the bars until you get to the end. The interesting part of this concept is that when the male character gets to the last room with the band, he turns off a light which then stops the video - as if the musical note has no more bars to travel through - in other words, we've stopped reading the sheet of music.

Woodkid - "Iron" and "Run Boy Run"
(in order below)

Woodkid's "Iron" and "Run Boy Run" are two of my favorite songs by the artist. The music videos for both are stunning to view due to the use of slow-motion and close ups which show the character's facial expressions as they travel though the video's narrative.

One thing I like about the two music videos is that the ending of "Iron" links into the beginning of "Run Boy Run". The ending of "Iron" and the beginning of "Boy Run Boy" display the same image within the mise-en-scene - a tall white building. This possibly shows a connection between each song and video. This is strengthened as the boy laying down in "Iron" and the boy running in "Run Boy Run" appear very similar and may be the same actor. I believe that "Run Boy Run" is a continuation from "Iron" and this is one of the reasons why I find these two music videos interesting.

I especially enjoy the connection between visuals and lyrics in "Run Boy Run" as the video applies to Andrew Goodwin's music video analysis theory that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. This relationship has been amplified by using the boy's imagination to display monsters and ships when he runs.

Group Members + Established Communication

Group Members + 
Established Communication

Group Members:

For A2 Media Studies I'm in a group with the following people:

• Sam Wight -  http://samwmedia.blogspot.co.uk/
• Jack Monahan - http://jmonahana2.blogspot.co.uk/
• James Kent -  http://jameskentmediaa2.blogspot.co.uk/

Our group is likely to chance if anyone decides to drop the subject. James has spoken about doing so lately, so if he decides too, it'll be ok with our group since he would of been helping the other members and myself find songs and also inputting ideas for our music video.

Established Communication:

Our group has decided to create a Facebook Page which we can display all display findings and ideas while online and outside of the classroom. We've already posted two songs for possible choices and a few ideas for them on our Facebook Group Page, so we like to think we're already way ahead of the game!

 

Welcome

Welcome to my A2 Media Studies blog. This is my 2nd Media blog for A-level. Our task is to create a Music Video in a group no more than 4 individuals and a digi-pack each.

My name is Austen Nuttall and I study the following subjects (at this current time):
Animation
Photography
Media Studies
Business Studies

Have a super special awesome time reading and reviewing my work during the upcomming months.

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