Date of Submission
5-2021
Type of Work
Exegesis and Creative Work
Principal Supervisor
Dr. Toby Wren
Associate Supervisor
Dr Huw Walmsley-Evans
Keywords
Musical short films; Popular music; Fictional narrative; Alter ego; Synaesthesia; Visual narrative; Visual hooks and gesture; colour palette; New media
Audience
General (G) - suitable for everyone
Abstract
This artistic research project comprises a musical short film called Who Is Nate Nixon? and an exegesis that examines the relationship between the film’s music and visuals. Following a review of the literature in four key areas: media; visuals; alter ego; and narrative, I establish the conceptual framework I use to create the short film. The musical short film is based on my original music and a musical alter ego developed for the project. I employ a practice-led methodology in which the creative work and my journals are the main data sources. As the basis of my reflection, I employ textual analysis and examine components of my film including cinematography; movement and gesture; the interplay between visuals and music; performance as an alter ego; and narrative structure. In addition, I use visual methods to compare the colour palette throughout the film and examine how this relates to the narrative structure, alter ego and music. I conclude my experience of making the film and music in parallel, the different modes of creative production—music and visuals—informed one another, employing an alter ego was a performance enabler in terms of my acting performance and beneficial to my songwriting process, the alter ego is not quite the transformation I intended and I plan on developing the character further to make it more divergent from my real persona, I present the importance of the visual design and colour palette aspects of film as a narrative device, visual hooks and gestures underscore the musical hooks to make the music more prominent and memorable, and my findings on the relationship between music and visuals which combine to reinforce each other and enhance the overall audio-visual media form.
Notes
Singer Nate Nixon awakens 33 years later in the year 2020. With a second chance to make up for past failings, Nate sets out on a new musical adventure. This is the teaser trailer for the film Who Is Nate Nixon? (2021) directed by David Ciura.
Teaser Trailer: Who Is Nate Nixon?
The film won Best Musical Film (Short) at the Munich Music Video Awards and was a finalist at the Venice Shorts awards.
Short Film (Full Length Version) Who Is Nate Nixon?
Recommended Citation
Ciura, D. (2021). Sound, Vision and Alter Ego: Creating a visual narrative for my music [Masters dissertation, SAE University College]. Creo.