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GERALDENE PETERS GUIDE STUDY THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH ISSUE 35 Anika the Moa AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION Story 1 ‘Country Music is three chords and the truth.’ Harlan Howard ‘All you need for the Blues is three chords and the truth.’ Ray Charles (The Sir Charles Blues Lab) ‘All I got is a red guitar, three chords and the truth.’ Bono improvising Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’ INTRODUCTION hree Chords and the Truth: the Anika Moa is Anika Moa’s story. The narrative incorporates Story (TCT), is a documentary tracking aspects of music video aesthetic to the extent Tthe path of musician singer/songwriter that, somewhat paradoxically, non-narrative Anika Moa from the release of her fi rst album music videos end up contributing to the docu- Thinking Room in the United States (after her mentary narrative. Although TCT does work to initial ‘discovery’ by the Managing Director of educate, inform, persuade, and is interested Warner Music in New Zealand), to the subse- in issues that challenge the status quo, the quent process of reconciling her values and life documentary also has an eye to the aesthetic in Aotearoa/New Zealand with the implications pleasures of the text. of signing to a major global record label—some- thing Anika implicitly talks about in terms of Directed by Justin Pemberton, TCT was pro- ‘keeping it real’. duced by ‘The TV Set’, an Auckland-based production company of three directors set up ‘I’m just really scared of Americans, I’m scared to bypass the loss of directorial control over of the whole market, I’m scared of representing projects that can sometimes occur within larger my country in a false way.’ production companies. Ostensibly a biographi- Anika Moa in New York City (segment 1) cal documentary, the vision and life of the direc- tor and his collaborative relationship with Anika TCT fi ts the generic parameters of documentary Moa suggest there are also autobiographical made for New Zealand television (specifi cally, dimensions to the documentary. TVONE). It was originally funded by NZ on Air for the Documentary New Zealand (DNZ) strand, This study guide has been written with close but will instead play during primetime within a attention to NCEA Levels 1-3 Achievement dedicated one-off slot for New Zealand Music Standards for the discipline strands of Eng- Month (Friday 8 May, 8.30pm). The broadcast lish, Media Studies and Social Studies. As a of TCT is timely, given the media attention since resource, it is designed with fl exibility in mind, late 2003 paid to local crossover/pop artists recognising the productive possibilities of cross- such as Hayley Westenra, Brooke Fraser and disciplinary exchange between English, Media Bic Runga—young women with very different Studies, and Social Studies. For convenience ISSUE 35 ISSUE 35 profi les and each at various stages of ‘success’ sake, the Study Guide has been divided into two within the global music industry. sections: 1. Genre & Narrative (English/Media AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION Studies), 2. ‘Keeping It Real’: Identity Formation Different cameras document stages of Anika’s (Social Studies). It is expected that teachers will journey over a twenty-month period, and the be able to modify exercises to suit each level story is largely told through montage, music and/or discipline strand. Where relevant, this tracks, ‘Voice of God’ narration, and interviews. Guide also makes reference to online resources Anika’s interview audio is also used extensively for Media and Visual Language Studies in the over images, taking on the function of narra- New Zealand Curriculum. tion and underscoring the extent to which this 2 3 ISSUE 35 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 3 ISSUE 35 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 2 Genre & Narrative ENGLISH (Achievement Standards) 1 Level 1.5: Show understanding of a Visual Text (2 Credits). External. • Level 2.5: View, study, analyse Visual Text (3 Credits). External. • Level 3.4: Respond critically to Visual Text (4 Credits). External. MEDIA STUDIES (Achievement Standards) Level 2.2: Closely read an unfamiliar text (3 credits). Internal. • Level 2.3: Demonstrate understanding of messages, values and representations within media text (3 credits). Exter- nal. • Level 2.4: Undertake a media genre study (3 credits). External. • Level 2.5: Explain the use of narrative conventions in media text (3 credits). Internal. • Level 3.2: Explore the language of a medium and various readings of texts within a medium (4 credits). Internal. English / Media Studies hree Chords and the Truth is a genre-rich the generic specifi city of each program type. text—particularly useful for the way in John Fiske cites Peter Wollen who picks up Twhich television documentary is offset on the relationship between music video and by music video. Importantly, Justin Pemberton advertising suggesting that, ‘where the visuals also directs music programming and fi rst put the act as an ad … the soundtrack is an example of idea of a documentary to Anika when he was the music commodity’.1 The commercial music fi lming a Smokefree Rockquest fi nal for TVNZ. industry relies on selling records, and the mar- While making the documentary, he directed keting of the artist is inseparable from marketing three Anika Moa music videos. ‘Falling In Love the music. At the end of segment 1, we hear Again’ and ‘Mother’ are two that appear in the Anika’s voice-over a photo shoot montage: ‘I sat documentary. there and I’m selling myself in a totally unreal way, and kind of like tolerating the situation ‘cos • The New Zealand Film Archive has cop- I felt that if I don’t do it then I won’t be released, ies of Anika Moa music videos for ‘Good or I won’t be successful …’ Elsewhere, she In My Head’ (2001) and ‘Falling In Love comments: ‘There’s Anika’s album, and then Again’ (2002), as well as a ‘20/20’ item there’s Anika. She’s got make-up on and fl ash on Anika Moa. Details for enquiries about clothes, but her album doesn’t sound as though secondary school access are available at: she’d be someone with make-up on and fl ash http://www.fi lmarchive.org.nz/education/ clothes … people think I’m someone different, education.html and it’s all because of the media hype.’ • Online Film and Video Language Resources http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/ Commercialism provides a link between the units/piano/fi lm_terms.html genres insofar as it can be said that television http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/ documentary is an institutional genre shaped by resources/fi lm.html the commercial parameters of a ratings-driven • The ‘Moving Images’ series of links in Ex- medium. Accordingly, TCT, has been structured ISSUE 35 ISSUE 35 ploring Language: A Handbook for Teachers into fi ve segments to accommodate ad breaks. Following Raymond Williams, advertising can be AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION Topics discussed include: lighting, sound, seen to merge with the program, as part of the composition, grammar, editing, special ‘fl ow’ of television programming. effects, storyboarding http://english.unitecn ology.ac.nz/resources/resources/exp_lang/ • Watch the broadcast of TCT, and identify home.html the ads that play through the documentary. What are the connections between prime Contrasting Music Video with Television Docu- time and the relationships between target mentary is a useful way for students to clarify audiences for advertisers, and the target 4 5 ISSUE 35 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 5 ISSUE 35 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION 4 audiences for the documentary? To what 2instructworks/3editing_doc/ 3docedit_ extent do the content of the ads comment scriptmpl/docanaly.doc on the documentary, and vice versa? What http://faculty.uml.edu/phaines/42.232/ is the relationship between the music and tablestyleanalysis.htm visuals in the ads that you watch? Can you • How does editing, cinematography, and art think of any ads that are shot and edited direction contribute to the meanings of, or like music videos? What are some of the moods evoked by the music video? What pleasures that watching music videos of- are the number of different ways in which fer, and to what extent do these pleasures Anika’s identity is structured through the transfer to watching ads? How would you videos? compare your experiences watching music • In preparation for the next activity, it would videos, and your experiences watching ads? be useful for students to watch music videos How does watching music videos and ads of younger women artists on the music differ from your experience of watching the channel C4. http://www.c4tv.co.nz/ documentary? Students can choose four or five music vid- • Identify other scenes within the documentary eos, and apply questions from the preceding where commentary is made on the market- exercise to them. ing of ‘Anika’. How many different perspec- • Storyboard a music video for one of Anika’s tives on marketing ‘Anika’ are there? Does songs. (The templates below can be adapt- TCT have a point of view about marketing ed to include lyrics for the songs, which are Anika, and if so how does the documentary readily available online). represent the different perspectives in order http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/ to persuade the audience about its point of units/movies/storyboard.html view? http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/ resources/resources/exp_lang/classroom_ MUSIC VIDEO approach.html • Using film language, and taking into account Peter Galvin, the Vice President of Product the ideology of gender representation, com- Development at Atlantic Records, talks about pare the video you’d like to make, with the the need for mild sex appeal in the marketing music video ‘Falling In Love Again’ critiqued of artists and their music.

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