Daughter - Analysis

Artist: Daughter
Album: The Wild Youth

Digi-pack - We decided it would be a good idea to analyse the work of our chosen artist ‘Daughter’. Although we are planning to make the song our own, we wanted to look into the work of the group so that we could get a feel for the genre of music.  This seemed useful as we can take inspiration from similar artists within the genre of indie/folk pop and create a professional product. The album artwork of Daughter on their EP ‘The Wild Youth’, quite literally takes the title into the picture, using children with painted faces. This use of mise en scene within the photo is the centre focus, turning the children into ‘wild animals’ – in this case a tiger. The haphazard style that the face paint is done adds to carefree attitude associated with youngsters, linking back to the album title. The face paint also simply shows a child being a child – it could be just about anyone getting their face painted when they were young. We particularly like the way the children are innocently portrayed, acting as any one of us could when we were children. This makes the photo relatable to a large audience as many people could see themselves in this kind of photo. The picture shows the boy with his arm around the girl, an indication that they are perhaps brother and sister or share some close relationship. This is to perhaps show that the music on the album is something intimate and can have personal reasons associated with the songs and its lyrics to many people.  It also suggests that the music could remind the audience of a memory from their youth, and the people they were once close to. The simplistic white text adds a sense of purity to the music, implying that the artist wants you to concentrate only on her voice and the instruments. This is why we particularly liked the artist and the music they create, as it is stripped of the commercial side of the music industry and expresses raw emotion. This is something we hope to take on board in our own work, and take precautions not to over complicate and commercialize the video and artwork we produce. The image we want to portray is judged straight off from the album artwork, and we want to keep it simple so that it could universally relatable to many people. As well as this we don’t want to divert from the music or cover up the emotion within the song. We are aiming to build the song up in many aspects and levels so that the audience  can in some way associate with their own lives.

Video - Daughters only video ‘Peter’ is solely performance based, however we can still take away valuable techniques in making something so static still interesting to watch. The performer, Elena Tondra, is seen alone singing and playing the guitar throughout the whole video, meaning positioning and facial expression are highly important as it is all the audience has to concentrate on.  She sings to the camera for some of the song, however, at the line ‘I’ve forgotten what I wanted’ she looks away to the corner of the room she is in, perhaps wistfully, and reassessing what she wants in the relationship she sings about. To add to this she often looks down at her guitar, I think this is not only to concentrate on her performance, but also in sadness, as if she cannot bear to admit to the audience what has happened to her relationship. The video is shot on a handheld camera, however isn’t overly shaky, but enough to express the raw emotion she is feeling. The movement throughout the video tilts up and down between a close up of her face and the guitar. At one point, the camera zooms out, enough to show a mid shot of her and the guitar, as if the moment she is singing about is too personal and the audience should leave her in her element. As for editing, we see what is expected in certain places - on guitar solo, guitar is shown, when she sings, she is shown singing. The video is basically one continuous take, however focuses on certain bits when they should be shown. This is simple to achieve, but even 1 second out of time would ruin the effect. We can take away this editing technique to give our video a more professional feel.



 Advert- The advert for Daughters gig shows their same stylised approach seen in the digi pack. The title ‘Daughter and Friends’ makes the event seem welcoming and open to the audience. This is also seen within their music. The background of the advert uses the same artwork on the front of the album, relaying the ‘wild youth’ effect from the album and music to the audience. Again like the album, they use simplistic white font, differentiating key information in italics. This works effectively and doesn’t overwhelm or bore the audience with too much information. They also use a colour scheme, depicting the blues from the child’s top and colours other parts of the poster to make it stand out. For example the double circle around the date of the event. This is important and will be considered in our advertisement. The list of artists supporting the act, give the audience an idea of what they will be listening to. Another important aspect of the advertisement is the logo at the bottom. This shows the management or venue and again can give the audience an impression of what to expect.