Music Performance and Production Level 3
Jamie Gilham
Project Concept
In this project we are looking at Dante's Inferno as an initial stimulus, using modern day examples. Our aim is that he final performances will engage a Theatre audience and move them physically and emotionally. Each of us will begin with a different circle of hell and to come up with songs relating to the theme, as well as finding visuals to use for the show. For us, we are doing Heresy, in which we are finding and making songs relating to the theme, as well as finding modern day examples of Heresy. Primarily we will be using online resources, as we are using visuals, we need to get footage relating to our theme, such as rioting, protests, pictures of activists, conspiracy theorists and other modern heretics. I will compile them into a film, and we will attempt to play along with it, matching the changes and dynamics in the videos. In the past we have done something similar for our first gig, in which we have played to visuals, doing an original and a cover song during the performance. In my group I did Easy Rider, and had an original for the graveyard scene, where the characters are intoxicated and If 6 was 9 by Jimi Hendrix, doing a montage of the main characters driving around America.
Evaluation
The way I will do my daily blogs is to do them, whilst I am in session, as I found that trying to note them down, and doing them at a time when I can, proved to be challenging, since it clashed with other priorities I do have. I will also attempt to video as much as I can, performance wise, to keep content flowing on my YouTube channel. I will make my intentions clear on what we need to do, and to document what both went well and didn't within the rehearsals. At the end I will state what will need to be done in the next session, such as learn a song at home. For weekly, I will evaluate my days, based on my daily blogs and show an overall progress, based on what has happened during the week.
Project action plan and timetable
In my action plan, I will start doing visuals for my layer, by researching various clips on YouTube, all based around Heresy, then I will create a playlist on my account and fill it with videos based around Heresy, including potential song ideas, acts of heresy, including, protests, riots, conspiracies, and even videos of people, including civil rights activists, conspiracy theorists and any other heretics. For my timetable plan I will evaluate what is the main priority for next week, whether it is to learn a new song or to work on any visuals needed, then within each section of the table, write out the necessary steps needed to complete this task, each starting from the beginning of each week. To start with, I will focus on a starting point for our theme, since that will be our main priority for the beginning of our project, looking at songs, videos or even scripture that we could work into our set. I will look into helping in other themes using my skills as a keyboard player. Two weeks before the show we will need to have a finished idea and work on the performance and technical aspects of it.
Proposed research sources and bibliography (Harvard Format)
Primarily, we will be mainly using online resources, however we will try to broaden our resources, by watching films, reading books or listening to anything that might be useful for our performance. One thing we recently did was attend Stomp, to see how the performers behaved on stage. As well as that, we also attended other shows, most notably, The Colors of Justice, which had an elaborate stage set-up and the actors had great timing on their lines. We also looked at a previous performance, which featured a similar theme to what we are doing. In one clip, one of the performers, who portrayed the devil, acted as the conductor and even interacted with the audience, something that would be good to do in this show. Also for this gig, we will be using a lot of musicians on certain songs, orchestrating them and layering even more sounds on songs, such as singers, guitarists and keyboardists. We will also be utilizing lights, audio and visuals, making use of theater, since it can accommodate all of the production.
Rationale
Throughout the year, I have started to learn how to read sheet music and identify key and time signatures, which has become beneficial for me when learning new songs, or figuring out chords for songs other people have come up with. One thing I have started doing is making and producing videos, since I am in charge of doing a lot of the filming of work in progress. I have also started doing a lot of editing, via Windows Movie Maker, adding transitions, effects and splicing clips, and being creative and experimental with my videos to make them even more presentable to show, and try to focus on the quality of the videos, rather than the quantity. I hope to be able to use these new skills in the project
Link to Videos
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT7H4rLiXhKJQfEnOTiko0xzBNndz4DLI
Here you can find my playlist of some of the videos used in the visuals
Last Updated - 29th May 2017
Heresy Video 6
In the last prototype, I added videos of famous modern-day heretics for Personal Jesus. The purpose of this was that the people featured in the visuals are representing someone's, "personal Jesus", based on their views, and follow them without questioning them. In some ways, you could see this a heresy against the heretics, which is quite ironic. Other than that, I mainly focused on the dynamics and transitions of each of the visuals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyXWvPrtRA&list=PLT7H4rLiXhKL9m4nzbN9puWBg725dVU5G&index=6
Uploaded on 30 Apr 2017
Heresy Video 5
In the fifth prototype, I removed visuals from our fourth song, as we had to cut it out, since it didn't meet up to standard's with our performance, but other than that, it was mostly the same as before, including working on matching the dynamics and transitions of the songs with the visuals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6weNVbys88&list=PLT7H4rLiXhKL9m4nzbN9puWBg725dVU5G&index=5
Uploaded on 26 Apr 2017
Heresy Video 4
In the fourth prototype, I included another set of visuals, for Club Foot, with footage of acts of heresy in the modern age, during the choruses, inter-cut with interviews from various heretics including Alex Jones, David Icke and Malcolm X, during the verses. As before I had to modify certain parts of the visuals, to match up with the dynamics and transitions of the songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7USwH_47nZo&list=PLT7H4rLiXhKL9m4nzbN9puWBg725dVU5G&index=4
Uploaded on 23 Apr 2017
Heresy Video 3
In the third prototype, I included an intro with candles, since the group was having problems with when to start. Another thing I added, during Take Me to Church, was videos of a church burning, during the choruses, inter-cut with videos I have used in previous incarnations of the videos. I have also taken into account with how long the transitions are in-between since, some members have to swap roles during songs, by playing the rehearsals along with the video and seeing how long it took to change over to the next song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy1Ll7tftsE&index=3&list=PLT7H4rLiXhKL9m4nzbN9puWBg725dVU5G
Uploaded on 21 Apr 2017
Heresy Video 2
In the second prototype, I included another layer of visuals for our third song. In this it shows a trippy animation of America's downfall, featuring famous political figures, and various metaphors and analogies throughout the entire video. This was suggested to me by one of our peer's, as it fits the theme of Heresy. For this I mainly used a lot of the visuals and only cut what didn't had to be in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijPrS-icGY0&list=PLT7H4rLiXhKL9m4nzbN9puWBg725dVU5G&index=2
Uploaded on 18 Apr 2017
Heresy Video 1
In the first prototype, during Take Me to Church, I start it with a black screen, then it begins with the character looking at an old photo, then he leaves whilst his parents are arguing. He eventually ends up at a church, leaving flowers on a grave then entering the church, then it continues with another character, going through a messy break up with his girlfriend, whilst she tries to reconcile with him to no avail, ultimately ending with him burning the photo, then, during Pretender, it transitions into the character in the church, then transitioning into a montage of various riots. For the video, I try to the match the dynamics of the songs, based on various moments in the songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPYXufXlSvo&index=1&list=PLT7H4rLiXhKL9m4nzbN9puWBg725dVU5G
Uploaded on 18 Apr 2017
Beck - Sound & Vision
In the intro to Personal Jesus, we took inspiration from this performance, in which Beck orchestrates a bunch of musicians and singers, similar to traditional orchestras. For this, we were put into groups, based on what instruments we play and Will, our singer, conducted us, starting with going around clockwise, whilst we sustain a note, then raises and lowers his arms to increase the pitch and dynamics of our set, then processes to begin the main riff, with each of us playing a different note of the riff.
Beck - David Bowie's Sound and Vision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyO5MRTbL2s
Accessed - 10th May 2017
Poems about Heresy
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Heresy%20Hearsay%20Poetry%20Vulgar%20Blasphemous.htm
I found this website, which features some poems about heresy, which would be great to use in our set.
Heresy Poetry
Accessed - 24th April 2017
Avenged Sevenfold - Shepherd Of Fire
“If you just listen to the music, it feels like you’ve been taken down to Hell. From the riffs, to the bells ringing, to the horns, to the drumbeat, it feels like you’re being dragged down.”
“It’s very like ‘Sympathy For The Devil,’ in that there’s a silver-tongued Devil speaking to you. He’s not all about fire and brimstone; he’s luring you down and telling you he can make your life better than the guy up above. There’s a temptation vibe to it, with pure chaos going on behind it.” - Lead singer M. Shadows to Kerrang! Magazine discussing the meaning behind shepherd of fire.
I feel like this song fits in very well with our theme of heresy as its really about the devil luring you into committing what the some would see as heresy by going with him instead of “the guy above”.
Avenged Sevenfold - Shepard of Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw
Accessed: April 20th 2017
Hozier - Take Me To Church
Both the video and song, are straight on point with their topic, In the song, it details the singer's frustrations with the Catholic Church and their stance on homosexuality. It is ironic, musically, since it is very gospel and very church like. In the video it shows a man being lynched by a group because of his sexuality and ends with them tormenting him, by burning his possessions, with his lover hiding to avoid the same fate. Since homosexuality is looked down upon by the church, it was definitely a huge risk the singer took to do this song, since he would be branded a heretic by the church.
Hozier - Take Me to Church
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw
Accessed: April 10th 2017
Melanie Martinez - Mrs. Potato Head
I see the man as a representation of society. He is reeling them in with false advertisement and promising them that they need this. When he does this and realises that they are still not up to standard, he moves on to someone else. This is what society does. They lead you in a state that you need these things. It is a form of heresy because plastic surgery is seen as the “norm” and people are expected to get it. This shows how commercialism can affect someone’s opinion and make them think the need things that they don’t.
Melanie Martinez - Mrs. Potato Head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkri1NUq9ro
Accessed: April 10th 2017
Two Door Cinema Club - Are We Ready? (Wreck)
The video shows how major companies advertise their products to being helpful to everyone, but really do a lot more harm than good to people, with the companies cashing in on their products, as evidenced by the excess skin the singer is peeling off and the warnings at the bottom of the screen, so small that people wouldn't even notice them, similar to how many advertising posters seen on billboards. In some ways, this could be seen as anti-consumerism.
Two Door Cinema Club - Are We Ready?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJZJtY6u7o
Accessed: April 10th 2017
Bring Me the Horizon - Antivist
Meaning to song:
“It’s about ‘Slacktivists,’ online people that just talk shit on Twitter, and 'Like this if you want to get Obama to die’ or whatever. It’s loads of shit; people think they’re making a difference nowadays just because they’re sat on their fat arses with ill-informed 'facts.’ They think they know everything and that they’re making a difference, and it’s bullshit.
"So the lyrics to this one are quite sarcastic,” he added, “but if you want to make a difference, you have to do more than just sit at your computer. It’s not saying 'Don’t care about the world’, it’s saying, 'Don’t think you care about the world and that you’re better than people if you’re doing fuck all’. If you really believe in all that, you’ve got to get up and do more.” - Oli Sykes, lead vocalist to Bring Me the Horizon.
Song Facts - 2017
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=28984
Accessed: April 10th 2017