1940 - The first promotional clips were made for bands for the visual jukebox. Thousands of these were created, mostly for jazz bands. They mostly depicted the bands performing on a constructed band stand designed for the shorts.
1956 - Hollywood began to make music-based films like “Rock Around The Clock”
1956 – Elvis Presley and other top acts were performing at the peak of the “Ed Sullivan Shows” popularity in America
1962 – “Top of the pops” is first aired
1967 – The Beatles release the ground breaking video's for “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry fields forever”
1969 - “Easy Rider” features one of the first uses of rock music to accompany sequences in a dramatic film
1975 – The infamous “Bohemian Rhapsody” video was released
1981 – MTV was launched, it was the first 24 hours a day music channel, the first video to be played on MTV was “Video killed the radio star”
1982 - The first music video was banned, it was Queen's song “Body Language”
1983 – Michael Jackson released the video for “Thriller” the video was 14 minutes long and was the most successful selling music video, shifting 9million copies
1989 - Madonna released the controversial video for “Like a Prayer”
1991 – Nirvana's “Smells like teen spirit” is released and launches the a song for the generation
1992 – MTV started crediting director's for music video's and reoccurring director's for big hit video's shot to fame
1995 – The music video for Michael Jackson's “Scream” cost $7million to produce and was nominated
2003 – The first HD Camcorders were introduced, so now music video's could be captured in high definition.
2005 – Youtube is launched, music video's now became available to be viewed on demand on the site
2005 – Music video's became available on the iTunes store
2008 – MTV HD is launched and is the first HD music channel available in the UK
Thursday 6 May 2010
Task 1 (Research - Initial Six Stage Analysis)
Drive - Incubus
The music video I decided to choose was Drive by Incubus taken from the 1999 album Make yourself. Throughout the video there are cuts between an animation of the singer Brandon Boyd drawing himself into the scene and a almost jam session where the band perform the song. With many acoustic instruments, the song has quite a relaxing feel so the video matches this by not have a fast pace to it.
There is no intertextuality in the music video as Incubus themselves dont keep to any trends with there video's apart from a main performance sequence. As in most video's for this genre, it is very performance orientated with the guitar solo being singled out as a main part of the video. During the solo, the screen flips upside down and you view things from the perspective of the band being upside down. With the lead singer Brandon Boyd being voted one of the “sexiest men in rock” the video revolves around him, most of this with his shirt off as well, to drag both a male and female audience to this video and to the band Incubus as well, clever marketing from the record label Epic/Immortal Records. Throughout there is a feel of voyeurism as you feel as if your looking into a jam session from the band and they are performing to you. Also through the video, you feel as if your being sung to by the lead singer of the band as his eyes always follow the camera.
The meaning of this song is about taking control of your life and not living in fear and having your decisions made for you by fear. When Boyd sings the chorus there is a sincerity to his performance relating to the lyrics “Whatever tomorrow brings ill be there, with open arms and open eyes” which means I'm going to be here tomorrow with no boundaries and making my own decisions. In this part of the video the band are very spaced out, this could represent that others should not influence your decisions so you have to be left to your own devices. Throughout there is a heavy relationship between the music and the video, as whenever there is an important piece of musicality to the song, the instrument is shown in the video performing this part. An example of this is there is a scratching solo coming out of the guitar solo, this is shown directly in the video him performing this part. Another example is just after the last chorus, the guitarist Mike Einziger sings backing vocals and he takes the main role in the scene when this happens.
Brandon Boyd and Jose Pasillas drew all of the animated sequences for the video, I took them about 50 hours to do all of these. The video was directed by Phil Harder and was shot in the McNamara Alumni Center in Minnesota. Drive is seen as Incubus's biggest hit so far and was there breakthrough single into mainstream rock charts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYQXgdBjTMk
Music Video Comparison
The 2 music video's I am comparing are the 2005 release of Korn's “Twisted Transistor” and Limp Bizkits “Eat you alive” released in 2003. Both songs are of the New Metal genre but have very different characteristics to them. Both bands have a long history with each other, doing collaborations for songs and touring together.
The “Twisted Transistor” video involves parody's of the members of the band where four rappers play the parts of Korn. Lil Jon as singer Jonathan Davis, Xzibit as bass player Fieldy, David Banner as drummer David Silveria, and Snoop Dogg as guitarist Munky. It is basically a mockumentary of the band on tour and through there history, similar to that of the film Spinal Tap, it is therefore in the genre of comedy. The video for “Eat you alive” has the plot that Fred Durst (singer) and the rest of his band has kidnapped a girl to show them a live performance where Fred can display his feelings to the girl. The girl is played by Thora Birch, and throughout the video there are cuts between the 2 scenes of the band performing to Birch and a group trying to find her. This group is led by Bill Paxton, his part in the video leads you to believe that he is the girls father. The video takes place in a forest where Durst and his crew have set up a performance area complete with lights and with Paxton's group running through the woods.
There is a lot of intertextuality references in the “Twisted Transistor” video, at the end of the video the real members of Korn represent “Fony Music” a twist on the massive record label “Sony Music” There is also mentions of the extreme sports competition “X-games” in the write up's of the bands future activities at the end of the music video. There is however not much intertextuality in the Limp Bizkit video, the only thing you can really say is there are the signature moves from the band seen in all there other music video's, such as the way they dance and perform the song.
Throughout the video for “Eat you alive” there is a constant feel of voyeurism with the audience feeling like they are the one's being performed to as you take on the role of the girl in the video. Fred Durst talks to the girl Thora at the start of the video saying things like “your gonna love this” but you dont see much of her reactions, you just see Fred talking as if he were talking directly to you the audience. Another example of this is that the camera is constantly moving to simulate the movements of the girls head to follow Fred Durst and to be slightly shaken up by the situation. With the video for “Twisted Transistor” there is a different sense of voyeurism, as you see it in the normal way like a documentary rather than in someone's perspective. The audience for this video feels like they have a front row seat for all the parody of Korn's antics, as they are on tour smashing up hotel rooms, making a music video and recording a song in the studio.
In both videos there is a heavy relationship between the music and the visuals as you see both bands performing the songs in real time. The Limp Bizkit video is a lot more performance orientated though as the whole point of the video is the band performing to a girl as Fred tries to win her over. In Korn's video there are snippets of them performing the song in various different places, in the studio, at a concert, on set of there music video and at the record label meeting. In both video's there is the typical rockstar behaviour that you would expect from both bands in this genre. The “Twisted Transistor” video obviously puts a different spin on that by having Rap stars play the part of Korn but get up to the same antics that the real Korn members would get up to on tour. There is the same relationship between lyrics and visuals that there are between music and visuals as you see the singers sing the words to the songs as they are performing them, in the “Eat you alive” video they have more meaning though as you feel they are being said to you in a personal manner rather than them just be performed to you in the typical way that you would expect if you went to see the band perform live.
Twisted Transistor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBEs5AuO8p0
Eat you alive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQloh2Vozhw
The “Twisted Transistor” video involves parody's of the members of the band where four rappers play the parts of Korn. Lil Jon as singer Jonathan Davis, Xzibit as bass player Fieldy, David Banner as drummer David Silveria, and Snoop Dogg as guitarist Munky. It is basically a mockumentary of the band on tour and through there history, similar to that of the film Spinal Tap, it is therefore in the genre of comedy. The video for “Eat you alive” has the plot that Fred Durst (singer) and the rest of his band has kidnapped a girl to show them a live performance where Fred can display his feelings to the girl. The girl is played by Thora Birch, and throughout the video there are cuts between the 2 scenes of the band performing to Birch and a group trying to find her. This group is led by Bill Paxton, his part in the video leads you to believe that he is the girls father. The video takes place in a forest where Durst and his crew have set up a performance area complete with lights and with Paxton's group running through the woods.
There is a lot of intertextuality references in the “Twisted Transistor” video, at the end of the video the real members of Korn represent “Fony Music” a twist on the massive record label “Sony Music” There is also mentions of the extreme sports competition “X-games” in the write up's of the bands future activities at the end of the music video. There is however not much intertextuality in the Limp Bizkit video, the only thing you can really say is there are the signature moves from the band seen in all there other music video's, such as the way they dance and perform the song.
Throughout the video for “Eat you alive” there is a constant feel of voyeurism with the audience feeling like they are the one's being performed to as you take on the role of the girl in the video. Fred Durst talks to the girl Thora at the start of the video saying things like “your gonna love this” but you dont see much of her reactions, you just see Fred talking as if he were talking directly to you the audience. Another example of this is that the camera is constantly moving to simulate the movements of the girls head to follow Fred Durst and to be slightly shaken up by the situation. With the video for “Twisted Transistor” there is a different sense of voyeurism, as you see it in the normal way like a documentary rather than in someone's perspective. The audience for this video feels like they have a front row seat for all the parody of Korn's antics, as they are on tour smashing up hotel rooms, making a music video and recording a song in the studio.
In both videos there is a heavy relationship between the music and the visuals as you see both bands performing the songs in real time. The Limp Bizkit video is a lot more performance orientated though as the whole point of the video is the band performing to a girl as Fred tries to win her over. In Korn's video there are snippets of them performing the song in various different places, in the studio, at a concert, on set of there music video and at the record label meeting. In both video's there is the typical rockstar behaviour that you would expect from both bands in this genre. The “Twisted Transistor” video obviously puts a different spin on that by having Rap stars play the part of Korn but get up to the same antics that the real Korn members would get up to on tour. There is the same relationship between lyrics and visuals that there are between music and visuals as you see the singers sing the words to the songs as they are performing them, in the “Eat you alive” video they have more meaning though as you feel they are being said to you in a personal manner rather than them just be performed to you in the typical way that you would expect if you went to see the band perform live.
Twisted Transistor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBEs5AuO8p0
Eat you alive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQloh2Vozhw
Scream - Michael Jackson
The video for Michael Jackson's “Scream” is the most expensive music video in history with costs for the making of it tipping $7,000,00. The song was released in 1995 and peaked at number 5 in the US charts although reaching number 1 in many countries. The video features the collaboration between Michael and his sister Janet, the first time the 2 had worked together in 13 years. For the first time in many years Jackson did not come up with the concept for this video, he instead left that job to the director Mark Romanek. Many of the instruments on the song were played by Michael Jackson and it mixes the typical Jackson genres of Pop and R&B and fuses them with Funk and Rock.
Throughout the video there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the words “stop pressuring me” being said a lot during the song, Michael is seen the make the action of pushing his hands in front of him as if to symbolise the action of pushing someone. Also there is a lot of visual screaming in the video which directly links to the song title “Scream”. As expected in the video when either Michael or Janet has a lead singing role, the other is in the background of the video leaving the spotlight to the lead singer at the time. The song is said to be written as a lash out at all the negative media coverage Michael got for the 1993 child abuse allegations he was on trial for.
Although there is no sexuality directed at each other through the video there is a lot of solo sexuality throughout it, mainly coming from Janet. Most of the outfits in the video worn by Janet and Michael are matching, they are seen to be wearing tight black and white latex outfits. In some scenes Janet Jackson is seen to be wearing not a lot of clothes as you can see her shoulder blades and a lot of bare flesh. There is another costume for her, she is wearing a fur coat and a bikini, while wearing this outfit she is seen to grab her breasts in an aggressive and provocative manner.
There is a constant theme of strength with the 2 characters in the video, the facial expressions tell a lot and are closely linked the the lyrics in the song. Both are also seen to be performing karate kicks and punches as well as leaps and stomps. The video is quite unusual as it represents both genders in the same way, as both strong and sexual. The clothing for the video is very representative of the sexuality that is being portrayed. The camera revolves around the movement of both Janet and Michael all the way through the music video for “Scream” and the fact that both are always shot either in worms eye view or level and never in birds eye angle means that they always look dominant and strong. Although they are seen as equal, Michael is seen as more the aggressor as through the course of the video he destroys various guitar's and vase's, incidentally the objects that he smashed for this video cost in access of a staggering $100,000. It is seen as one of Michael's most aggressive songs, and was also the first which included profanity in it, many fans saw this as a bad thing because of his wide appeal to a younger audience. Although the song containing profanity, the uncut version of the video was never available on a TV broadcast.
Throughout the video there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the words “stop pressuring me” being said a lot during the song, Michael is seen the make the action of pushing his hands in front of him as if to symbolise the action of pushing someone. Also there is a lot of visual screaming in the video which directly links to the song title “Scream”. As expected in the video when either Michael or Janet has a lead singing role, the other is in the background of the video leaving the spotlight to the lead singer at the time. The song is said to be written as a lash out at all the negative media coverage Michael got for the 1993 child abuse allegations he was on trial for.
Although there is no sexuality directed at each other through the video there is a lot of solo sexuality throughout it, mainly coming from Janet. Most of the outfits in the video worn by Janet and Michael are matching, they are seen to be wearing tight black and white latex outfits. In some scenes Janet Jackson is seen to be wearing not a lot of clothes as you can see her shoulder blades and a lot of bare flesh. There is another costume for her, she is wearing a fur coat and a bikini, while wearing this outfit she is seen to grab her breasts in an aggressive and provocative manner.
There is a constant theme of strength with the 2 characters in the video, the facial expressions tell a lot and are closely linked the the lyrics in the song. Both are also seen to be performing karate kicks and punches as well as leaps and stomps. The video is quite unusual as it represents both genders in the same way, as both strong and sexual. The clothing for the video is very representative of the sexuality that is being portrayed. The camera revolves around the movement of both Janet and Michael all the way through the music video for “Scream” and the fact that both are always shot either in worms eye view or level and never in birds eye angle means that they always look dominant and strong. Although they are seen as equal, Michael is seen as more the aggressor as through the course of the video he destroys various guitar's and vase's, incidentally the objects that he smashed for this video cost in access of a staggering $100,000. It is seen as one of Michael's most aggressive songs, and was also the first which included profanity in it, many fans saw this as a bad thing because of his wide appeal to a younger audience. Although the song containing profanity, the uncut version of the video was never available on a TV broadcast.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
2000 word task
Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning
The video for “Crying Lightning” by Alex Turner’s Arctic Monkeys is the first single of there much hyped third album “Humbug“. The video is the public’s first real viewing of the bands new more grown up and artistic image. This song has quite a dark side to the lyrics and that is very much reflected in the video, the colours used in the background of the set are quite gloomy and the dark sunset works perfectly in relationship to the mood and tempo of the song. The video was directed by Richard Ayoade, he was also the director for the video “Fluorescent Adolescent“, the second single from the previous album but with a similar tempo and feel to the song “Crying Lightning“.
The most direct link between lyrics and visuals in the music video are the relationship between the words crying lightning which are said a lot during the song and the rainy weather throughout the video after the first verse and then during and after the guitar solo lightning thrashes around the boat and in the sky. The video is quite conventional in the fact that there is the typical situation of the band performing the song in a different location other than a stage or a studio.
Another typical feature is that the guitar solo in the song is the main focus of the video when it happens, in this instance it shows a giant version of front man and guitarist Alex Turner appearing from out the water in front of the bands boat. The boat then travels through the giant figures legs, as they do this the band gazes up in astonishment while Turner carries on singing. Later on in the video the other three members of the band also appear out of the water for the last chorus and then for the ending of the song. Throughout the video the band never appears to be looking at the camera and seems to be performing to the huge space of sea and sky in front of them to give a feel of loneliness.
NERD - Rockstar
The video for NERD’s song “Rockstar” is the second single from there debut album In search of NERD. The video is set in a school very similar to that of the setting for Deftones “Back to school“, unlike other video’s that I have looked at this video has a brief scene before the music kicks in where a gym teacher is shouting at his class of what may be seen as “geeks” before the song kicks in with the first verse.
Lead singer Pharell Williams takes the lead role as one of the class members throughout the video, he is the centre of attention the whole way through as the camera pans around him a lot, a good example of this is in third scene when the class is playing doge ball and Pharell just stands in the middle of the room singing as balls fly all around him but yet avoid him to give him a cool and calm character. There is the conventional performance scenes in the video for “Rockstar” as the same gym from the first two scenes is then turned into a concert with all the class mates and cheerleaders dancing on the stands of the gym as NERD play the song, even the teacher is seen to have lightened up and is dancing to NERD‘s performance.
There is a constant relationship between lyrics and visuals through the video, the lyrics are sung by many people during the video but it mainly shows front man Pharell singing. Another example of this is when Pharell Williams says “your in dream land” and he makes the action of falling asleep on his hands. There is quite a sexual nature to the video with various very attractive girls with short skirts and tight tops dancing and grinding to the music, but unlike most rap videos that have these themes in them NERD’s has a comedic atmosphere to it as well, in the second scene cheerleaders are seen falling through the ceiling next to the “geeky” character. The feel of voyeurism for the video is that you feel like you’re looking on to the chaos in the school as some strange things are happening such as a little monkey stopping basketball players from scoring, mascots falling all over the place and people skateboarding in the gym. “Rockstar” has been to date NERD’s most successful song, it reached number 15 in the UK singles chart.
Florence And The machine - Rabbit Heart
This video is the 2009 release of Florence and the Machine’s “Rabbit heart“, it has over 500,000 views on Youtube and is the bands forth single, the song will appear on the upcoming “Lungs” album. It has the same kind of feel to it that other Florence and the Machine video’s have, with the eccentric costumes and a fairy tale atmosphere to the scenery and situation The main thing that the audience grasps through this music video is the characteristics of Florence Welch. She is very unique in the way she performs, the clothes that she wears and the mannerisms that only she posses through her performances. I believe that the record company would have given her complete control in the way that she goes about things with all of her appearances, such as music video’s and live performances as they see that she is very individual and has a charm to her that they would not want to take away by setting her rules and boundaries about what to do and what to wear.
In the video for “Rabbit heart” the main relationship between visuals and lyrics is shown through each chorus, nearly every time that Florence sings “and turns me to gold in the sunlight” there is a shot of the sky or you catch a glimmer of a bright light, whether it be natural or synthetic. Another relationship between the lyrics and visuals is right at the start of the song, and about a second or two before Florence says “I start spinning slipping out of time” she spins while surrounded by the two other girls either side of her. There is not a heavy relationship between the music and the visuals, the only thing you could really gather from it is that every time a different part of the songs structure kicks in the scene changes in the video, for example when the transition between the verse and the and the pre-chorus the scene changes from when the girls are dancing in the field to a close up shot of Florence singing in front of the lake.
I would say that in the video there are some intertextuality references to Alice in Wonderland by the way that the video revolves around one girl and the whole situation they find themselves in seems very surreal and fairy tale like.
As for the notion of voyeurism you get the typical feeling of looking into a situation where the band is performing, this is slightly different in this video because Florence and the Machine revolves more around Florence as a solo artist so the camera revolves around her throughout the video, you often find this with solo performers that have a consistent backing band. The video is almost split in half with the notion of looking from Florence as half the time she is looking into the camera so the audience gets the feel of her performing to you, and the other half is her looking into the distance, down at the ground or looking at others in the scenery.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californiacation
The video for Californiacation is the Chilli's 4th single from the album of the same name, It was released in June of 2000. The video has the conventional mix of performance shots and story shots, although it is innovative in Californiacation as the storyline shots are all animated. It shows the band in game like adventures as the members in a third person view that makes you feel as your in video games controlling the characters, this view is inforced by the life bars and player selection screens throughout the video. There is alot of intertextuality in the gaming scenes as the adventures of the band members are spin off representations of games like "Crazy Taxi" "Grand Theft Auto" "Tomb Raider" and "Resident Evil"
The performance sequences in the video for Californiacation are vintage of the Chilli Peppers, complete with lead singer Anthony Kiedis trademark hand movements when he sings and John Frusciante's Guitar solo facial expressions. The single is also seen as one of the bands most meaningful songs as it covers the subjects of pornography, the recent decline of western civilisation and Hollywood's darker side. These are all excentuated by lyrics such as "hardcore soft porn" which is sung in the bridge before the chorus throughout the song.
The video is full of links between lyrics and visuals, for example in the first verse when the lyrcis "Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations" in the game sequence guitarist John Frusciante runs past a young blonde girl getting off a bus about to enter a movie agency that looks a bit rough, you can tell this as when you look at the sign above the door from the agency it has letters missing and letters wonky and broken on the board. Another example of this is when the lyrics "A teenage bride with a baby inside" are sung, bass player Flea runs past a young pregnant girl in a forest who is holding her belly.
Bullet For My Valentine - Tears Dont Fall
The video for Tears Dont Fall is the Welsh bands 4th single of there debut Studio album "The Poison" The video that is more commonly known is not actually the original for the song, there was a different storyline to video, although nearly all the performance sequences by the band in the rain are kept the same. The original video was dropped because of its content of the storyline, it involved a girl catching her boyfriend making out with another girl, being distraught the girl performs voodoo rituals on on a doll representing the boyfriend which in turn hurts him. The girl then throws the doll in the fire, which simultaniously causes the car the boyfriend and another girl were in to explode, killing them both. The record company felt that they would make a new video as they didn't feel that it would be able to have mainstream success and would have to be cut for daytime television.
I decided to research this video as it is a good example of the kind of video my group are trying to achieve for the song " The prom queen has no friends". We will try to use a similar performance sequence with the band playing in heavy rain, although in our video the rain scenes will only happen towards the end of the song when there is more aggressive singing and a heavy drum beat. This video is very heavily performance orientated, with rarely 5 seconds of a shot going past without there being a scene with the band in it. All of Bullet For My Valentine video's are of the same structure, the best example of this is the video for there much older single "4 words to choke upon"
Although all the video's i researched were of a similar genre, i felt it unnecessary to branch out into mainstream pop or any other genre's far from what my video will be trying to achieve. Also i did'nt feel the need to look at unusual music video's with extremely different scructure's and purposes to that of the generic Pop/Rock genre.
The video for “Crying Lightning” by Alex Turner’s Arctic Monkeys is the first single of there much hyped third album “Humbug“. The video is the public’s first real viewing of the bands new more grown up and artistic image. This song has quite a dark side to the lyrics and that is very much reflected in the video, the colours used in the background of the set are quite gloomy and the dark sunset works perfectly in relationship to the mood and tempo of the song. The video was directed by Richard Ayoade, he was also the director for the video “Fluorescent Adolescent“, the second single from the previous album but with a similar tempo and feel to the song “Crying Lightning“.
The most direct link between lyrics and visuals in the music video are the relationship between the words crying lightning which are said a lot during the song and the rainy weather throughout the video after the first verse and then during and after the guitar solo lightning thrashes around the boat and in the sky. The video is quite conventional in the fact that there is the typical situation of the band performing the song in a different location other than a stage or a studio.
Another typical feature is that the guitar solo in the song is the main focus of the video when it happens, in this instance it shows a giant version of front man and guitarist Alex Turner appearing from out the water in front of the bands boat. The boat then travels through the giant figures legs, as they do this the band gazes up in astonishment while Turner carries on singing. Later on in the video the other three members of the band also appear out of the water for the last chorus and then for the ending of the song. Throughout the video the band never appears to be looking at the camera and seems to be performing to the huge space of sea and sky in front of them to give a feel of loneliness.
NERD - Rockstar
The video for NERD’s song “Rockstar” is the second single from there debut album In search of NERD. The video is set in a school very similar to that of the setting for Deftones “Back to school“, unlike other video’s that I have looked at this video has a brief scene before the music kicks in where a gym teacher is shouting at his class of what may be seen as “geeks” before the song kicks in with the first verse.
Lead singer Pharell Williams takes the lead role as one of the class members throughout the video, he is the centre of attention the whole way through as the camera pans around him a lot, a good example of this is in third scene when the class is playing doge ball and Pharell just stands in the middle of the room singing as balls fly all around him but yet avoid him to give him a cool and calm character. There is the conventional performance scenes in the video for “Rockstar” as the same gym from the first two scenes is then turned into a concert with all the class mates and cheerleaders dancing on the stands of the gym as NERD play the song, even the teacher is seen to have lightened up and is dancing to NERD‘s performance.
There is a constant relationship between lyrics and visuals through the video, the lyrics are sung by many people during the video but it mainly shows front man Pharell singing. Another example of this is when Pharell Williams says “your in dream land” and he makes the action of falling asleep on his hands. There is quite a sexual nature to the video with various very attractive girls with short skirts and tight tops dancing and grinding to the music, but unlike most rap videos that have these themes in them NERD’s has a comedic atmosphere to it as well, in the second scene cheerleaders are seen falling through the ceiling next to the “geeky” character. The feel of voyeurism for the video is that you feel like you’re looking on to the chaos in the school as some strange things are happening such as a little monkey stopping basketball players from scoring, mascots falling all over the place and people skateboarding in the gym. “Rockstar” has been to date NERD’s most successful song, it reached number 15 in the UK singles chart.
Florence And The machine - Rabbit Heart
This video is the 2009 release of Florence and the Machine’s “Rabbit heart“, it has over 500,000 views on Youtube and is the bands forth single, the song will appear on the upcoming “Lungs” album. It has the same kind of feel to it that other Florence and the Machine video’s have, with the eccentric costumes and a fairy tale atmosphere to the scenery and situation The main thing that the audience grasps through this music video is the characteristics of Florence Welch. She is very unique in the way she performs, the clothes that she wears and the mannerisms that only she posses through her performances. I believe that the record company would have given her complete control in the way that she goes about things with all of her appearances, such as music video’s and live performances as they see that she is very individual and has a charm to her that they would not want to take away by setting her rules and boundaries about what to do and what to wear.
In the video for “Rabbit heart” the main relationship between visuals and lyrics is shown through each chorus, nearly every time that Florence sings “and turns me to gold in the sunlight” there is a shot of the sky or you catch a glimmer of a bright light, whether it be natural or synthetic. Another relationship between the lyrics and visuals is right at the start of the song, and about a second or two before Florence says “I start spinning slipping out of time” she spins while surrounded by the two other girls either side of her. There is not a heavy relationship between the music and the visuals, the only thing you could really gather from it is that every time a different part of the songs structure kicks in the scene changes in the video, for example when the transition between the verse and the and the pre-chorus the scene changes from when the girls are dancing in the field to a close up shot of Florence singing in front of the lake.
I would say that in the video there are some intertextuality references to Alice in Wonderland by the way that the video revolves around one girl and the whole situation they find themselves in seems very surreal and fairy tale like.
As for the notion of voyeurism you get the typical feeling of looking into a situation where the band is performing, this is slightly different in this video because Florence and the Machine revolves more around Florence as a solo artist so the camera revolves around her throughout the video, you often find this with solo performers that have a consistent backing band. The video is almost split in half with the notion of looking from Florence as half the time she is looking into the camera so the audience gets the feel of her performing to you, and the other half is her looking into the distance, down at the ground or looking at others in the scenery.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californiacation
The video for Californiacation is the Chilli's 4th single from the album of the same name, It was released in June of 2000. The video has the conventional mix of performance shots and story shots, although it is innovative in Californiacation as the storyline shots are all animated. It shows the band in game like adventures as the members in a third person view that makes you feel as your in video games controlling the characters, this view is inforced by the life bars and player selection screens throughout the video. There is alot of intertextuality in the gaming scenes as the adventures of the band members are spin off representations of games like "Crazy Taxi" "Grand Theft Auto" "Tomb Raider" and "Resident Evil"
The performance sequences in the video for Californiacation are vintage of the Chilli Peppers, complete with lead singer Anthony Kiedis trademark hand movements when he sings and John Frusciante's Guitar solo facial expressions. The single is also seen as one of the bands most meaningful songs as it covers the subjects of pornography, the recent decline of western civilisation and Hollywood's darker side. These are all excentuated by lyrics such as "hardcore soft porn" which is sung in the bridge before the chorus throughout the song.
The video is full of links between lyrics and visuals, for example in the first verse when the lyrcis "Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen quotations" in the game sequence guitarist John Frusciante runs past a young blonde girl getting off a bus about to enter a movie agency that looks a bit rough, you can tell this as when you look at the sign above the door from the agency it has letters missing and letters wonky and broken on the board. Another example of this is when the lyrics "A teenage bride with a baby inside" are sung, bass player Flea runs past a young pregnant girl in a forest who is holding her belly.
Bullet For My Valentine - Tears Dont Fall
The video for Tears Dont Fall is the Welsh bands 4th single of there debut Studio album "The Poison" The video that is more commonly known is not actually the original for the song, there was a different storyline to video, although nearly all the performance sequences by the band in the rain are kept the same. The original video was dropped because of its content of the storyline, it involved a girl catching her boyfriend making out with another girl, being distraught the girl performs voodoo rituals on on a doll representing the boyfriend which in turn hurts him. The girl then throws the doll in the fire, which simultaniously causes the car the boyfriend and another girl were in to explode, killing them both. The record company felt that they would make a new video as they didn't feel that it would be able to have mainstream success and would have to be cut for daytime television.
I decided to research this video as it is a good example of the kind of video my group are trying to achieve for the song " The prom queen has no friends". We will try to use a similar performance sequence with the band playing in heavy rain, although in our video the rain scenes will only happen towards the end of the song when there is more aggressive singing and a heavy drum beat. This video is very heavily performance orientated, with rarely 5 seconds of a shot going past without there being a scene with the band in it. All of Bullet For My Valentine video's are of the same structure, the best example of this is the video for there much older single "4 words to choke upon"
Although all the video's i researched were of a similar genre, i felt it unnecessary to branch out into mainstream pop or any other genre's far from what my video will be trying to achieve. Also i did'nt feel the need to look at unusual music video's with extremely different scructure's and purposes to that of the generic Pop/Rock genre.
Planning
When starting off planning for our music video we were given the task of first finding a song that was not in the mainstream market. After going through my Ipod I found some suitable bands such as Electric Eel Shock and Fei Comodo, Gareth also looked through his music collection and said that he has recently been listening to the band Broadway and said that no one he knew had really heard of them, and because I listen to a lot of bands in the Pop/Rock genre and had not heard of them either I thought that they would be good to use. After listening to a few of their songs Gareth suggested that the song "Prom queen has no friends" sounded like a good song and I agreed 100% with him. It was important to pick a song that we both liked as we would be hearing it over and over again for the coming weeks. After listening to it a few more times we started to brainstorm a few ideas of what we wanted to the video to contain.
We gathered research for our project by studying different music video's and the certain aspects from video's we wanted to incorporate into our piece. Most music videos incorporate moving camera throughout the video, but ours uses stationary camera for the majority of the band footage. We did this to ensure we got enough shots of each member of the band, as well as the band as a whole. We believed it to be of high importance to include a substantial amount of the band as this is one of the expectations of the record label. From the majority of the research done we found that the camera was constantly moving when shooting the band, however we did find exceptions to the rule where the camera was stationary in shots of the band. An example of this is Funeral Thirst by The Black Dahlia Murder. Therefore it can be said that we challenged the conventions of music videos to a degree, but the way it has been challenged has been done successfully prior to our video so we could see that it would be safe to do so
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBHNiebX2Mo
To gain research of what people expected to find and also wanted to find in a music video we set up a questionnaire. We put this questionnaire on Facebook and these are some examples of answers we gathered.
The main aim of the questionnaire was to find out what people like to see in their music video's, In conclusion with the results we found out that around 61% prefer to watch music videos involving the artist performance and a storyline
After deciding that we wanted to put both storyline and performance into the video we had to think of the storyline. Me and Gareth again brainstormed some ideas and studied the lyrics to the song and came up with the plan to show a rocky relationship between a couple. We felt that this storyline would link to the song very easily, we planned that we could tie in lyrics such as "and just walk away" and "how do we get so close to resolution and just give up suddenly" with the visuals of the couple fighting and making up again.
CAST
We decided from the outset that Gareth would be playing the lead role in the storyline of the video, we decided to stick with the roles from previous video's that we had made with me working the video camera and him playing the lead role.
With the plan for the storyline of our video in place we needed a female character to play Gareth's love interest. We talked through a number of possible candidates and decided to ask Georgia, we knew that she had some experience in the acting field as she had appeared in a number of plays and studied drama at school for a couple of years.
We then needed to make a band to perform in the video:
For the role of lead singer we needed someone that would have a lot of confidence in what they do and would be able to learn all the words to the song easily so that there would be no issues to do with syncing the visuals and singing in the song. We thought that Ryan would be ideal because he loves his music and he fits the image perfectly, with a number of piercings and the dress sense of someone that is in a rock band.
James always stood out as being an ideal candidate for the role of guitarist for the band, he had all his own equipment and had listened to the song before, and we knew it would not take him very long to learn how to play the song. We needed to someone who was very capable with the guitar as we needed insert shots of difficult techniques like finger tapping and sweep picking.
For the spot of drummer we again needed someone who was very capable on their instrument, for the drums we needed someone who was confident with playing double bass pedal parts and was good with drum fills. We had two candidates for this slot, Chris and Connor but decided to go with Connor as he lived very close to me and did not have a job at the time where as Chris did. He also fit the stereotype image of a Rock performer with the suitable clothing and some piercings.
Josh had previously been in a band with both Gareth and Connor so he was the best candidate for the role of bass player for our project. He learnt the song in a short space of time and has all his own equipment to bring up for the shoot. He was also the only member of the cast who could drive so he came in handy for taking the gear up to the shoot.
The next stage was to create an animatic to show what our video would contain. We draw shots of the band and the storyline scenes as well as insert shots of important features that we felt should be included in the finished video such as skilled pieces of musicianship by the band and facial expressions from the characters in the narative sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCuiMc7B-Lg
We gathered research for our project by studying different music video's and the certain aspects from video's we wanted to incorporate into our piece. Most music videos incorporate moving camera throughout the video, but ours uses stationary camera for the majority of the band footage. We did this to ensure we got enough shots of each member of the band, as well as the band as a whole. We believed it to be of high importance to include a substantial amount of the band as this is one of the expectations of the record label. From the majority of the research done we found that the camera was constantly moving when shooting the band, however we did find exceptions to the rule where the camera was stationary in shots of the band. An example of this is Funeral Thirst by The Black Dahlia Murder. Therefore it can be said that we challenged the conventions of music videos to a degree, but the way it has been challenged has been done successfully prior to our video so we could see that it would be safe to do so
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBHNiebX2Mo
To gain research of what people expected to find and also wanted to find in a music video we set up a questionnaire. We put this questionnaire on Facebook and these are some examples of answers we gathered.
The main aim of the questionnaire was to find out what people like to see in their music video's, In conclusion with the results we found out that around 61% prefer to watch music videos involving the artist performance and a storyline
After deciding that we wanted to put both storyline and performance into the video we had to think of the storyline. Me and Gareth again brainstormed some ideas and studied the lyrics to the song and came up with the plan to show a rocky relationship between a couple. We felt that this storyline would link to the song very easily, we planned that we could tie in lyrics such as "and just walk away" and "how do we get so close to resolution and just give up suddenly" with the visuals of the couple fighting and making up again.
CAST
We decided from the outset that Gareth would be playing the lead role in the storyline of the video, we decided to stick with the roles from previous video's that we had made with me working the video camera and him playing the lead role.
With the plan for the storyline of our video in place we needed a female character to play Gareth's love interest. We talked through a number of possible candidates and decided to ask Georgia, we knew that she had some experience in the acting field as she had appeared in a number of plays and studied drama at school for a couple of years.
We then needed to make a band to perform in the video:
For the role of lead singer we needed someone that would have a lot of confidence in what they do and would be able to learn all the words to the song easily so that there would be no issues to do with syncing the visuals and singing in the song. We thought that Ryan would be ideal because he loves his music and he fits the image perfectly, with a number of piercings and the dress sense of someone that is in a rock band.
James always stood out as being an ideal candidate for the role of guitarist for the band, he had all his own equipment and had listened to the song before, and we knew it would not take him very long to learn how to play the song. We needed to someone who was very capable with the guitar as we needed insert shots of difficult techniques like finger tapping and sweep picking.
For the spot of drummer we again needed someone who was very capable on their instrument, for the drums we needed someone who was confident with playing double bass pedal parts and was good with drum fills. We had two candidates for this slot, Chris and Connor but decided to go with Connor as he lived very close to me and did not have a job at the time where as Chris did. He also fit the stereotype image of a Rock performer with the suitable clothing and some piercings.
Josh had previously been in a band with both Gareth and Connor so he was the best candidate for the role of bass player for our project. He learnt the song in a short space of time and has all his own equipment to bring up for the shoot. He was also the only member of the cast who could drive so he came in handy for taking the gear up to the shoot.
The next stage was to create an animatic to show what our video would contain. We draw shots of the band and the storyline scenes as well as insert shots of important features that we felt should be included in the finished video such as skilled pieces of musicianship by the band and facial expressions from the characters in the narative sequence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCuiMc7B-Lg
Monday 3 May 2010
Ancillery Taks
We decided very early on in our planning that we wanted a stand out, memerable photo for the front cover of our album. Working with the title “Kingdoms” we toyed with the idea or either scenery or a figure/person. We took a few test shots of locations.
A shot of Folkestone down by The Leas
A shot of Manor house in the garden
The Photo we decided to use in the end was one of my brother Dan depicted as a God like Figure in front of a friends house at night time, I think this shot works fantastically as the lights on the house give an almost aura like light to the outside of Dan's figure. After taking this picture we knew that this would be the one to use and so decided not to take any more shots of people.
Example of what we wanted our cover to look like 1: The cover of Rage Against The Machines 1992 self titled album features a photo of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, burning himself to death in Saigon in 1963.
Example of what we wanted our cover to look like 2: The Cover for Fightstar's debut features an animated scene that depicts a mother and daughter at the top of a set of stairs, trying to keep out of the way of a city being ruined by the floods.
After finding the perfect picture for our album cover we then needed to decide on which fonts and colour of lettering we wanted on the cover, We felt that to give it a clean look we would place both the artist name and the album title centred, with one underneath the other.
The album covers for Keep Calm and Carry On and Only Revolutions are good examples of how we wanted our album cover to look, with a memorable photo and plain titles of the same colour one underneath the other
Here are some of the colours and fonts that we tried out in the planning stage of the artwork but decided not to use.
Gold and Black, with a more stick look to the "Broadway" this was one of my favourite idea's but after dicussing it with Gareth we decided the font needed to be more classy and to not use coloured lettering.
White and Black with more complicated looking lettering on the "Broadway" we decided to then swap the colours of the album title and the band name, also we changed the font slightly
Black and White, with a heavier bold "Broadway" We decided against this idea because we felt that the fonts would look best if they were the same colour.
For the back cover we decided to use the other option of scenery, and so to match the darkness of the front, we felt it would be best to use scenery in the dark. The picture is however not taken by us, it has been edited by us, by putting on track listings and darkening the colour of the whole photo slightly.
To add to this we added the song titles to the back of the cover with all the usual copyright information and record label information, as well as adding the album title and the band name to the spine of the cover with the same font and white lettering as we used on the front cover and the record label in red.
Complete Album
We combined our ancillary texts by using themes from both texts as this is a common feature of media advertising. We used the background from the back cover of the digi pack in the magazine advertisement to show continuity. An example of this is this advert for 30 seconds to mars’ album This is War
For our magazine advertisement for the album we decided to use the similar theme that the 30 seconds to mars advert uses (above). We used for the background the same picture we had on the back cover of the album, and over the top of that we put on the conventions you expect to see such as ratings, singles off the album, release date and the album itself.
Album Front Cover
A shot of Folkestone down by The Leas
A shot of Manor house in the garden
The Photo we decided to use in the end was one of my brother Dan depicted as a God like Figure in front of a friends house at night time, I think this shot works fantastically as the lights on the house give an almost aura like light to the outside of Dan's figure. After taking this picture we knew that this would be the one to use and so decided not to take any more shots of people.
Example of what we wanted our cover to look like 1: The cover of Rage Against The Machines 1992 self titled album features a photo of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, burning himself to death in Saigon in 1963.
Example of what we wanted our cover to look like 2: The Cover for Fightstar's debut features an animated scene that depicts a mother and daughter at the top of a set of stairs, trying to keep out of the way of a city being ruined by the floods.
After finding the perfect picture for our album cover we then needed to decide on which fonts and colour of lettering we wanted on the cover, We felt that to give it a clean look we would place both the artist name and the album title centred, with one underneath the other.
The album covers for Keep Calm and Carry On and Only Revolutions are good examples of how we wanted our album cover to look, with a memorable photo and plain titles of the same colour one underneath the other
Here are some of the colours and fonts that we tried out in the planning stage of the artwork but decided not to use.
Gold and Black, with a more stick look to the "Broadway" this was one of my favourite idea's but after dicussing it with Gareth we decided the font needed to be more classy and to not use coloured lettering.
White and Black with more complicated looking lettering on the "Broadway" we decided to then swap the colours of the album title and the band name, also we changed the font slightly
Black and White, with a heavier bold "Broadway" We decided against this idea because we felt that the fonts would look best if they were the same colour.
For the back cover we decided to use the other option of scenery, and so to match the darkness of the front, we felt it would be best to use scenery in the dark. The picture is however not taken by us, it has been edited by us, by putting on track listings and darkening the colour of the whole photo slightly.
To add to this we added the song titles to the back of the cover with all the usual copyright information and record label information, as well as adding the album title and the band name to the spine of the cover with the same font and white lettering as we used on the front cover and the record label in red.
Complete Album
We combined our ancillary texts by using themes from both texts as this is a common feature of media advertising. We used the background from the back cover of the digi pack in the magazine advertisement to show continuity. An example of this is this advert for 30 seconds to mars’ album This is War
For our magazine advertisement for the album we decided to use the similar theme that the 30 seconds to mars advert uses (above). We used for the background the same picture we had on the back cover of the album, and over the top of that we put on the conventions you expect to see such as ratings, singles off the album, release date and the album itself.
Album Front Cover
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