Kurt Cobain - Development of our Star Image

Our star image is similar to the star image of kurt cobain, a grunge rock star who has mental issues and lives an abnormal life. In 1987 he formed the band Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and their debut album 'Bleach' was released in 1989. However it was only until Nirvana released the album 'Nevermind' that gave them success through the song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. 

However one of the problems Cobain had was that he was uncomfortable with the label he signed with and he thought the audience to his music didnt really get the message he tried to put across. He lived with many mental issues even growing up, and would sometimes become extremely aggressive when challenged. He also found the media attention invasive and unnecessary. 

Cobain also struggled with several physical health problems, such as chronic stomach pains. This pain sometimes became too much for him that it turned him on to heroin and this became a huge struggle for him during his the last years of his short life.

His performances would be extravagant and his music videos would be extraordinary. For example, in 1992 at reading festival, Kurt Cobain came onto stage in a wheelchair and dressed in a hospital gown portraying an injured patient, to later collapse while singing as part of the act. His music videos also showed weird clips such as him climbing up a Christians cross. 

Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun. His death shocked the music world and is still spoken of to this day. In 2014, Cobain was posthumously added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his contribution to the grunge genre and his influence in music.

We would like to base our star image similarly to Kurt Cobain as our plot is similar to his performance at reading festival in 1992 with the psychiatric patient. We want our artist to be portrayed as depressed and mentally ill therefore through comparison to Kurt Cobain his image can be constructed. We feel that we want our audience to buy into our star image of alienated disaffected youths if we focus on our artists star image as being alternative and different from the norm. The genre of music is also alternative, therefore by focusing on a narrative that is different from the norm we can better reflect the genre.

Comparing Star Image of Our Artist To Similar Artists

The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to target the audiences. Richard Dyer argues that the star image is incoherent that is incomplete and 'open'. He says that this is because it is based upon two key paradoxes.

We constructed our star image to reach out to the disengaged youth of society. We adhered to these principles by being an organic band through the use of playing instruments and also by typically wearing dark colours to resemble dark emotions and rebellion which will sell our star image to the angered youth.Our star image is similar to that of Biffy Clyro's. We are both bands of 3 members. The lead singer in both bands has black hair and a beard which signifies his maturity but also the colour black is dark and connotes anger. The clothing worn by Biffy Clyro is smart and rock star typed clothing. Our band typically wear buttoned shirts and denim jackets to sell our star image to the hard rock fans as an organic band just like Biffy Clryo's. The difference I'd say between us is due to our band being more related to serious mental health issues, we share a smaller degree of humour to us whereas Biffy Clyro have a bit of smirk in their photo whereas we would be much more serious.Another star image similar to ours is from none other than Sum 41. Although they are American and we are British. They are certainly in the hard rock genre and have certain similarities to our band The Roaches. Although their lead singers hair is of a different colour, their clothing choices most definitely match our star image. The dark colours equate to dark emotions and this is what sells our star image to the angered youth. Again, although they have 4 band members, they still are similar to us by having a band to promote the organic aspect of their star image and just like us, they have grown their fan base over time within the hard rock genre. They adhere to generic conventions just like us in their music videos through the use of close ups and lip syncing to help sell their star image to the isolated youth.

The other star image similar to us is the band called Rise Against. The hard rock genre is filled with talents and this bands definitely fills that role. Their star image is sold similarly to ours as their lead singer again has the same colour hair black equating to dark emotions which will resonate with both their and our target audience. The degree of seriousness amongst them is also something that is similar to us as we are selling our star image in the hard rock genre to angered youth, we have to portray ourselves as similar to them. The multiple members also promotes the organic feel to the band which is further reinforced in their music videos just like ours through generic conventions of music videos by lip syncing and close ups which help sell our star images to the disengaged youth of society.

Our Bands Facebook Profile

Our target audience within the hard rock genre is the isolated youth. We have created a clear, detailed facebook profile and used certain aspects to help sell our star image to our target audience.


Firstly, we have used two black and white images to resemble dark colours. Dark colours resonates with anger and rebellion and this will help sell our star image to the disengaged youth. To build on this, by adhering to generic conventions, we have used close ups in the image to help sell our star image as an organic band to our target audience.










Our target audience can also visibly see when we are on our tour! The simplistic layout will be easy to use for our target audience to buy tickets for our concerts. This will lead to them buying into our star image and have us grow as an organic band.


Another key feature is the interactive aspect of our facebook profile. The ability for our fans to message, comment and share our posts is a fundamental aspect both promoting our organic band to a larger fan base and also keeping in close touch with our existing fans. All messages replied to are directly from the band members so this allows our fans to keep a personal touch. Furthermore, all fans sharing and commenting posts, their friends will see so thus if we have fans that are isolated youths, their similar friends may come across 'The Roaches' on facebook, see we are an organic hard rock band and buy into our star image.

4 Artists Similar to the Star we have Created

Our lead singer Ben Carson, has dark black hair. We are selling our artist as a band who is alienated and appeals to an audience who too feel alienated and illicit anger from society. When we researched into these artists, they all stereotypically wore dark black clothing symbolizing their anger and dark thoughts that went on in their head. We are going to put this across in our music video.


Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, had a severe drug addiction with mental health issues. He lived a short life yet he made such a strong impact on the music industry. His long hair helps sell his star image to the hard rock genre as the alienated youth will either have the same style hair so it'll resonate with them or they'll aspire or look up to those of this fashion style. As well as his hair, Kurt Cobain has a degree of aggression and a look of rebellion upon him. This look will again further resonate with the target audience of hard rock as it reinforces the organic feel to his music allowing him to sell his star image.

One artist immediately that springs to mind when I think our lead singer is Alex Garcia. He infers the same American rock star feel that Kurt does when he sings. His birthday is on September the 8th and he signed with long running record label Atlantic Records in 2009. Prior to this, he was signed with Fearless Records in 2006. Prior to his fame, he was one of the only original members of Mayday Parade as of 2014 along with Derek Sanders and Brooks Betts. In terms of mental health, Alex Garcia doesn't obtain any mental health issues that I am aware of so I suppose this does differ from Kurt however, in terms of musical talent, I think they both share a spark that not many other rock singers have. As mentioned above with Kurt Cobain, Alex holds the same hair style and his use of tongue infers he is a rebellious youth which will help sell his star image to the dis-affected youth.

The second artists that comes to mind is Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys. The Beach Boys were an American, California based rock band in the 1960's. Their lead singer, Brian Wilson, suffered some mental health issues. This potentially may have spiralled from his habits he developed which were: sleeping, doing drugs and overeating. Mr Wilson suffered from Schizoaffective Disorder, and was bipolar. These illness's made him hear voices in his head which ultimately limited his ability to compose and write songs. However, Wilson overcame his mental health issues and managed to finish off the album he began prior to being diagnosed, called 'Smile' which was a big moment for the band. The hard rock trademark, long hair and also his deep voice allows him to reach out to the alienated hard rock fans. As his age is older than most, his target audience isn't as youth as other rock stars. He uses generic conventions in his music videos as he used shots such as whip-pans and panning shots to show his movement during the performance which enabled him to add a layer of energy to allow his hard rock fans to be more enticed in his videos reaching out to the alienated youth of society.

Another artist that we believe in similar to our lead singer is no other than the Syd Barrett, the Pink Floyd magician. Syd was not in fact diagnosed with any mental illness however, he was said to have either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder according to fellow musicians in the industry. With regards to his music, he was absolutely fantastic and had such a powerful and positive impact in the rock industry. Although he left, a song he sung with Pink Floyd known as Astronomy Dominie was composed in 1967 and remained a popular performed song even after Barrett left the band. Long hair and a serious face with remarks of anger is a notable image of Syd which allowed him to sell his star image to the disengaged youth. His bipolar issues allow him to resonate with the mentally challenged people of society which again sells his star image.

The singer who was in similar shoes to our lead singer was a young adult by the name of Nick Drake. He had a gift at writing songs. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1974, only aged 26. During his lifetime, he wasn't as widely recognized as he became once he died. He suffered from severe depression and insomnia. These two mental illness's don't complement each other well at all as because Nick had trouble sleeping, he couldn't 'sleep away his sorrows'. He passed by overdosing on his anti-depressants. He was a exceptional singer and a gifted talent. As with all the hard rock stars I've mentioned, the use of long hair helps sell the star image. Whilst nobody encourages the use of drugs, most of the hard rock target audience 'look up' to those rock stars and when drugs are involved, it does help reach out to a further alienated youth and also to those suffering from drug addiction in any form. The organic feel to Nick shows he built his fan base over time as he was appealing to a niche audience like ourselves. 

3 Videos by a Similar Artist to Ours

These music videos are all by Nirvana, who are a grunge rock band who we think posses a similar star image to the artist we are creating. Within the hard rock genre, we will be appealing to the estranged youth through by selling our star image as an organic artist. The organic feel to our artist will be illustrated through the bands instruments and also the dark colours used from the artists clothing which equate to dark emotions and also through the use of close-ups in order to sell the artists star image and lip synching. By subverting this in our music video we are selling an aesthetic of authenticity for our artist’s star image to reinforce our artist’s emotional intensity and make their performance conventional for our target audience of disengaged youth, hard-rock fans.

All 5 of these areas have influenced our video as it has enabled us to effectively communicate our music to our intended target audience and help sell our star image. 

  

Development of Our Star Image

Our star image was always reaching out to the isolated youth. His dark coloured hair and clothing equated to anger which further resonated with anger and rebellion allowing him to reach out to his hard rock fans.
The Roaches is the name of our band with a drummer, bass guitarist and guitarist who is also the lead singer. We felt this was important as it promoted the organic aspect of our band as we all play instruments and aren't appealing to the mainstream audience. Instead, we are looking to slowly increase our fan base over time.



Whilst we include close ups of our band to help sell our star image, we also capture longer ranged shots to show our disengaged youth that we are also selling our musical talent not just our star image.

The bands clothing of buttoned shirts further echoes the organic feel to the band also also the degree of seriousness again resembles the anger and rebellion upon them.



The image shown here illustrates to our hard rock fans that we are a tight knit band which is how we formed in the first place! The connection we hold as band members really reflects and allows our target audience to buy more into our star image as it feels more strong and authentic. The locations in which we film as well being in an abandoned car park and also graffitiing a tunnel shows our rebellion which will resonate with the anti-authoritarian youth.

Street Art Photography

I am looking at examples of street art photography to give me ideas of themes or creativity that could be used in my music video.

Creative Camera and Editing Techniques and their Influences on our Music Video

28 Creative Cuts From Stranger Things from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.

1. Explain what you liked and why?- I liked when the camera panned upwards after focusing on the main subject as this created more suspense.
- The eye-line match of the cutlery with the loud sound of the knives and forks clashing creates false tension.
- The camera work of when the camera zooms out from the initial focus builds up tension and suspense in the audiences mind.
- When the camera follows the child's eyes it suggests he is confused and connotes that emotion to the watcher.- The editing of two scenes coming together, one being scary and then contrasted by a warm and peaceful scene is effective in changing emotion in the audience. This was done effectively by using a sound bridge from one scene of a scar sound which is used in the next scene for 'rolling out a bed blanket' which isn't scary, therefore contrasted very effectively.

2. How will it/can influence your music video?

- These editing and camera techniques will help to diversify our music video as it will become less predictable and create a more versatile range of emotions in the audience. This is because the different techniques of editing and camera angles keep the audience in check and excited for the conclusion of the video and will therefore watch till the end.

3. Explain how you can integrate any of the creative ideas into your music videos?

- These ideas can be integrated into a music video, for example one idea we had was that when the the child was in the supermarket the scene dissolved into a psychology lab with tests being done on a person. This is a clever idea of a narrative as it highlights two separate parts of one persons life.

4. Explain how these ideas will help you be creative with your music video?

-Watching the various clips of different camera and editing techniques has made me to begin thinking outside the box to become more creative and understand that its the editing and camera work that enables your audience to connect with the music video rather than solely the narrative itself.

Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison experiment was a simulation of prison life that was conducted in 1971 at Stanford university. The participants who were white middle class men, all agreed to participate for 7-14 day experiment for $15 per day, which would be around $90 a day in 2017.

The experiment was conducted in a 35 foot basement in Stanford psychology. There was a total of 24 participants 12 were prisoners with 9  prisoners and 3 alternatives, while the rest were were guards 9 in total and 3 alternatives.

After one day the prisoners started revolting, because of the loss of identity which is called de-individuation. The prisoners lost their identity through being told to wear smocks which had only numbers to identify themselves, and they were only referred to by their numbers rather than real names. The guards started to become violent for the most part, and forced the prisoners to commit foul acts and do cruel activities such as extreme exercises, due to their false sense of power that they had conformed to after wearing the khaki uniforms of prison guards. It had to be stopped after 6 days rather than the intended 12, due to the cruelty occurring in the mock prison.

This relates to our music video as we really wanted to get the idea of de-individuation across so we set our music video in a set that mimics a mental asylum. Just like the prisoners in the Stanford prison experiment that were stuck in a small area. Similarly, our lead singer will be stuck and chained to a chair as he is suffering from mental problems and wants to escape, furthermore we show him free from those mental problems and being stuck in that asylum similar to those that participated in that experiment.  

Jung - Dream Interpretation

Carl Jung was a dream interpreter. I felt it was necessary to do a post about him as there is a fantasy/dream like scene in our music video. He was born in 1875 and passed away in 1961.
Jung differed from Freud. Freud was more sexual whereas Jung mentioned that when you dream you are reflecting your conscious and unconscious minds. Everything we see in our dream is about us. If we see someone that is 7ft tall in our dream thats us and we are dreaming of us being 7ft tall.
He introduced some revolutionary thoughts to the world and has had many respected interpretations in religion, philosophy and psychology.

Street Moodboard

Here is our street moodboard. This moodboard reflects the locations we aim to use when in our 'fantasy' scene whereby we will have our lead singer running down an empty road in central London holding emotions of freedom as he joyfully sprints with his hands by his side. The images in the moodboard below portray the area we aim to use and furthermore, the feel it'll have when filmed. Also, we included the famous Abbey Road image of the Beatles, because it holds the same feel to what we are showing as the band walk across the pedestrian crossing.

Symptoms of a Paranoid Schizophrenic

One of the roles our main actor will be playing is that of a psychiatric patient, and the mental illness I have attributed him is paranoid schizophrenia. Therefore in order to better direct his role and to create actions and scenes that fit the part and that feel realistic, we must better understand the mental illness and learn of its symptoms in order to implement them into his role. We will do this by having a scene in the music video where there will be several copies of our main actor playing his patient role in the same shot and same room, and each copy will be acting out a single symptom of the disorder.

The first symptom is DELUSIONS which is where you believe things that are generally illogical and can come in for different categories; Delusions of persecution (belief that everyone around you is out to get you), Delusions of reference (belief that natural environmental events are specifically meant for you), Delusions of Grandeur (belief that you are a famous figure or that you have special abilities), Delusions of Control (belief that you whole life is in control of a higher force). Delusions are extremely common in paranoid schizophrenic patients occurring in 90% of those with the disorder and it occurs even when there is evidence that their beliefs aren't true. To implement these symptoms into our scene we will attach strings to our actor from an invisible puppeteer which imply that he is being controlled by an unseeable force.

The second symptom is HALLUCINATIONS which are the different ways that our senses are distorted and are allowed to misinterpret external things. The most common one is auditory hallucination which is in the form of hearing voices, caused by misinterpreting the voice of our inner scribe. the hallucinations are normally meaningful to the patient, and they often think it is a loved one speaking to them, however the comments they hear are usually violent and abusive. Placing this in the scene we will have our actor sitting on a chair with very closed body language and constantly jerking from side to side as if he is hearing imaginary voices.

The third symptom is DISORGANISED SPEECH due to troubles with concentration and maintaining train of thought. It manifests itself within the way you speak such as:

• Loose associations where you shift from topic to topic without any links to one another as your train of thought progresses, 
• Neologisms where you make up words which only make sense to you
• Perseveration where you repeat words and statements saying the same thing over and over
• Clang which is making meaningless rhymes within sentences

This will be displayed within the scene by having our actor saying words aloud and looking confused to portray himself loosing train of thought multiple times.

The fourth symptom is DISORGANISED BEHAVIOUR where your behaviour impairs your ability to live adequately and towards certain goals. Mainly manifesting as, the decline in daily functionality, unpredictable/inappropriate emotional responses to external stimuli, useless/bizarre behaviours, lack of impulse control. These behaviours normally disrupt the patients ability to take care of themselves at home, at work and in social situation. The way we will implement this into the scene is to display our actor performing a bizarre behaviour such as inflating a plastic bag.

The fifth and last symptom is ABSENCE OF NORMAL BEHAVIOURS also know as negative behaviours where there is the absence of normal behaviours in healthy individuals, such as:

• Lack of emotional expression - inexpressive face, lack of eye contact, blank facial expressions
• Lack of interest or enthusiasm - Lack of motivation or self-care
• Seeming lack of interest in the world - Unawareness of the environment, social withdrawal
• Speech difficulties and abnormalities - Inability to carry a conversation; short answers to questions and maintaining a monotone in conversations

This will be directed into the scene by having our actor stand still with zero facial expression and zero emotions showing.

The scene will end with another copy of the actor running into the room and running out as if he is displeased with his mental disorder and he wants to escape from the life it entails

Fight Club Comparison

Fight Club is a movie from 1999 which is all about a man suffering a mental illness and wants to change his life. There is Edward Norton who works in an office who has a boring normal job and gets involved in a plane crash. When he is in the plane crash, he falls asleep and goes into a phantasmagoria fantasy world. Then he becomes mentally insane and his new person embodies everything he wants. He has fighting skills and can make bombs out of soap. This new person is exactly who he wants to be yet it is all a fantasy.

This film relates to our idea as we want to positively represent mental health issues and disability  and do it delicately and carefully. Therefore, we will have our main actor institutionalised but show how he escapes being institutionalized through his dreams. We will show how our singer escapes his day to day existence through his dreams of being a rockstar. We feel this would also appeal to the target audience of a rock/InD band as they may also feel alienated from society and want to smash the system.

Phantasmagoria

The definition of phantasmagoria is a dream like state where it has hard to tell the difference weather something really happened or if your dreaming it. This is the message we are putting across in our music video.

This links to our narrative as it is all about a man in a mental institution who enters a phantasmagoric state whereby he is running free in a road/alleyway with police 'chasing him'. The idea behind the actor running free is the element of him escaping his mental problems and then the police are meant to represent his mental problems 'chasing' him back to reality.

A painter known as Will Boyd and a photographer by the name of Hubert Cecil, came together to do a series of art and photography named, 'CecilBoyd'. Their collaboration took 2 and a half years to complete. It is based on female identity and centred from Hubert Cecils, nightclub photography when he was a student yet twisted, with a high concept fashion editorial. 

Here are two of my own favourite paintings from the collaboration of work. I thought I'd show the contrast of colours in each painting. With the darker painting showing white and charcoal almost representing a wedding. It has a darker feel to it with a more mysteriousness to it due to the faces on the wall squeezed together. 

The pink painting connotes love and fun for me. The two girls with the high black shoes, short dress and whips symbolises strippers/pole dancers at a nightclub. The pink and blue colours have a positive feel to it and the girls behind the face is a very creative idea.

This all links to our music video as our narrative is all about a man who enters a phantasmagoria of freedom and is let go of his mental reality. Whilst he enters this state, the entire mood is shown positively with backgrounds to show time passing by such as clouds and the actor running down a road. Him running will symbolise him running towards his freedom and then the police officers chasing him represents his mental problems trying to catch him back.