Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Lip sync project
The idea
for our lip sync project we were put into groups of four and each given a song to make a short music video for as practise for our final videos, we were each given 1 day to complete our lip sync video. my group was; me, Frazer ,Luke and Rob, unfortunately Rob was ill and did not appear in our video, but we managed without him. The theme for our form group was songs by Barry Manilow. The song our group was given originally was 'Weekend in new england'. we discussed video ideas for this song, but eventually decided we would rather do the song 'Mandy'.
Filming
When it came down to filming. We decided to go up to the park behind the college, because the park offers a range of spectacular views and the perfect set for our romantic, passionate lip sync. we decided that it would be most effective if each of us had one verse each to sync. we opened up the video sequence with an establishing shot of the big oak tree in the middle of the park. it then focuses on luke who is sitting against the tree as he begins to sing the song. we felt that this image was effective to capture the mood of the song. i then appear from behind the tree whilst miming the lyrics and to give look a reasuring hug. The rest of the sequence is a mixture of panning and still shots with us miming the song through out. The sequence ends with us running into the distance and then finnishes on the shot of the tree.
summary
I feel that our sequence went very well becuase as well as being entertaining and funny, we also mannaged to capture the emotion beind the lyrics of the song. i think that the shots we used and our post production ideas worked effectively. if i did the project again i would take more time to learn the words.
.
research into the work of a music director
The work of Chris Cunningham.
Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk. Cunningham has had close ties to Warp Records since his first production for Autechre. Videos for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" are perhaps his best known. His video for Björk's "All Is Full of Love" won multiple awards, including an MTV music video award for Breakthrough Video and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. It was also the first ever music video to win a Gold Pencil at the D&AD Awards. It can still be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His video for Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" was nominated for the "Best Video" award at the Brit Awards 2000. He also directed Madonna's "Frozen" video.
Chris Cunningham made his directorial debut in 1997 with the music video for "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin, which was instantly praised, banned, and raved about by many people in the business. He followed up by making the music video for "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin, and the astounding "All is Full of Love" video by Björk. His incredible style alone makes him a director to watch out for.
Aphex Twin - Come to daddy
The song Come to daddy is one of the more famous that was directed by Chris Cunningham. the video contains disturbing imagery, The video opens with an old woman walking a dog in a grimy, industrial setting. The dog urinates on an abandoned television lying on the sidewalk, causing it to sputter unexpectedly into life. This unleashes an evil spirit from the set, accompanied by a gang of small children, all of whom bear the face of Richard D. James donning a demonic grin, who appear to be the inhabitants of the abandoned buildings. The children go around wreaking havoc, trashing an alley and chasing a man into his car.
Richard D. james discribed the making of Come to daddy: "Come to Daddy came about while I was just hanging around my house, getting pissed and doing this crappy death metal jingle. Then it got marketed and a video was made, and this little idea that I had, which was a joke, turned into something huge. It wasn't right at all."
Come to daddy was named number three best video of all time in 2005. Chris Cunningham has worked on other music videos for Aphex twin like 'Window licker' and the monkey drummer video.
Bjork - All is full of love
"Most video directors have one trick that they use all the time. Then there are people who build a whole world around them. Chris is like that. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg with Chris."
All is Full of Love is an elegant, moving description of two Björk robots in love. As they are pieced and wired into existence, they sing to each other and fall in love. The video reaches its harmonious climax as the robots join in embrace while still being detailed by the industrial machines beside them. Each robot was designed by Chris Cunningham, faces reminiscent of Björk's own delicate features. Cunningham said "When I first heard the track I wrote down the words 'sexual,' 'milk,' 'white porcelain,' 'surgery.' [The video]'s a combination of several fetishes: industrial robotics, female anatomy, and flourescent light in that order." The video recieved many awards thanks to Cunningham's genius.
Squarepusher - come on my selector
Come on My Selector is another brilliant promo. This video won many big-time industry awards. The original idea for the squarepusher video was a cat and dog chasing around a house, but three days before the shoot Cunningham changed the idea to having a chinese girl escaping a mental hospital. This was the first video that Chri Cunninngham edited together himself.
Personal Quotes
All I ever do is talk about films and then not make them. As a result I thought: just shut up about it - make a film then talk about it when it's done. But it's got to be something that I'm absolutely frothing about. After three or four years tinkering with other people's material I came to the conclusion that I just had to develop my own material from scratch.
I love anatomy. I love the human form, I always have. That's why I got into painting and sculpting, that's why I got into doing prosthetics, that's why I got into making films about bodies. But the one thing that I hadn't been able to incorporate was sound. And that was my favorite love of all. And as soon as I started doing that in film, that was it for me.
We did versions of it in six different languages, to go round the world. The German version was fucking hilarious, just really brutal. Everything sounded so aggressive and rude. The girl sounded like she was going to get out of the chair and stab you after she'd finished her monologue. [talking about his ad for Playstation, Mental Wealth]
Music production
In 2004/2005, Cunningham took a sabbatical from filmmaking to learn about music production and recording and develop his own music projects. In December 2007 Cunningham produced two tracks, "Three Decades" and "Primary Colours", for Primary Colours, the second album by The Horrors. In the summer of 2008, due to scheduling conflicts with his feature film script writing he couldn't work on the rest of the album which was subsequently recorded by Geoff Barrow from Portishead. In 2008, he produced and arranged a new version of 'I Feel Love' for the Gucci commercial that he also directed. He travelled to Nashville to work with Donna Summer to record a brand new vocal for it.
Earlier work in film included model making, prosthetic make-up and concept illustrations for Hardware and Dust Devil with director Richard Stanley, as well as Nightbreed. In 1990–1992 he contributed the occasional cover painting and strip for Judge Dredd Megazine, working under the pseudonym Chris Halls, the surname of his stepfather.
other Filmography projects Chris Cunningham has played a major role in:
"Second Bad Vilbel" (1996) video for Autechre
"Back With The Killer Again" (1996) video for The Auteurs
"Light Aircraft on Fire" (1996) video for The Auteurs
"Another Day" (1996) video for Lodestar
"Space Junkie" (1996) video for Holy Barbarians
"36 Degrees" (1996) video for Placebo
"Personally" (1997) video for 12 Rounds
"Jesus Coming in for the Kill" (1997) video for Lifes Addiction
"The Next Big Thing" (1997) video for Jesus Jones
"Tranquillizer" (1997) video for Geneva
"No More Talk" (1997) video for Dubstar
"Something To Say" (1997) video for Jocasta
"Come To Daddy" (1997) video for Aphex Twin
"Only You" (1998) video for Portishead
"Frozen" (1998) video for Madonna
"Come On My Selector" (1998) video for Squarepusher
"All Is Full of Love" (1999) video for Björk
"Windowlicker" (1999) video for Aphex Twin
"Afrika Shox" (1999) video for Leftfield and Afrika Bambaataa
"Mental Wealth" (1999) commercial for PlayStation
"Flex" (2000), using sounds created by Aphex Twin
"Monkey Drummer" (2001), using "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels mount" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
"Rubber Johnny" (2005), using "Afx237 V7" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
"Sheena Is A Parasite" (2006), video for The Horrors
"Gucci Flora" (2009) commercial for Gucci Perfume
here is a URL to a chris cunningham interview by pixelvision which questions him on his short film titled 'Rubber Johnny'
http://www.pixelsurgeon.com/interviews/interview.php?id=181
Audiences reactions to his work:
Generaly, when searching and browsing through reviews and comments left by veiwers of chris cunningham's work, you find that people find his work inspirational and unique in its concepts and amazing special effects .I print screened these customer reviews of the Chris Cunningham DVD from Amazon.com.
the reviews rate the DVD as 10 out of 10, one of the comments someone left said "In short, this looks to be a superb portfolio of work, and something you'll come to time and time again, both for yourself and to show any friends that come to visit. Fantastic."
Chris Cunningham's work also recieves tremmendous praise from veiwers on YouTube. i print screened commetns posted on the short film 'Rubber Johnny' by aphex twin and Chris.
Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk. Cunningham has had close ties to Warp Records since his first production for Autechre. Videos for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" are perhaps his best known. His video for Björk's "All Is Full of Love" won multiple awards, including an MTV music video award for Breakthrough Video and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. It was also the first ever music video to win a Gold Pencil at the D&AD Awards. It can still be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His video for Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker" was nominated for the "Best Video" award at the Brit Awards 2000. He also directed Madonna's "Frozen" video.
Chris Cunningham made his directorial debut in 1997 with the music video for "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin, which was instantly praised, banned, and raved about by many people in the business. He followed up by making the music video for "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin, and the astounding "All is Full of Love" video by Björk. His incredible style alone makes him a director to watch out for.
Aphex Twin - Come to daddy
The song Come to daddy is one of the more famous that was directed by Chris Cunningham. the video contains disturbing imagery, The video opens with an old woman walking a dog in a grimy, industrial setting. The dog urinates on an abandoned television lying on the sidewalk, causing it to sputter unexpectedly into life. This unleashes an evil spirit from the set, accompanied by a gang of small children, all of whom bear the face of Richard D. James donning a demonic grin, who appear to be the inhabitants of the abandoned buildings. The children go around wreaking havoc, trashing an alley and chasing a man into his car.
Richard D. james discribed the making of Come to daddy: "Come to Daddy came about while I was just hanging around my house, getting pissed and doing this crappy death metal jingle. Then it got marketed and a video was made, and this little idea that I had, which was a joke, turned into something huge. It wasn't right at all."
Come to daddy was named number three best video of all time in 2005. Chris Cunningham has worked on other music videos for Aphex twin like 'Window licker' and the monkey drummer video.
Bjork - All is full of love
"Most video directors have one trick that they use all the time. Then there are people who build a whole world around them. Chris is like that. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg with Chris."
All is Full of Love is an elegant, moving description of two Björk robots in love. As they are pieced and wired into existence, they sing to each other and fall in love. The video reaches its harmonious climax as the robots join in embrace while still being detailed by the industrial machines beside them. Each robot was designed by Chris Cunningham, faces reminiscent of Björk's own delicate features. Cunningham said "When I first heard the track I wrote down the words 'sexual,' 'milk,' 'white porcelain,' 'surgery.' [The video]'s a combination of several fetishes: industrial robotics, female anatomy, and flourescent light in that order." The video recieved many awards thanks to Cunningham's genius.
Squarepusher - come on my selector
Come on My Selector is another brilliant promo. This video won many big-time industry awards. The original idea for the squarepusher video was a cat and dog chasing around a house, but three days before the shoot Cunningham changed the idea to having a chinese girl escaping a mental hospital. This was the first video that Chri Cunninngham edited together himself.
Personal Quotes
All I ever do is talk about films and then not make them. As a result I thought: just shut up about it - make a film then talk about it when it's done. But it's got to be something that I'm absolutely frothing about. After three or four years tinkering with other people's material I came to the conclusion that I just had to develop my own material from scratch.
I love anatomy. I love the human form, I always have. That's why I got into painting and sculpting, that's why I got into doing prosthetics, that's why I got into making films about bodies. But the one thing that I hadn't been able to incorporate was sound. And that was my favorite love of all. And as soon as I started doing that in film, that was it for me.
We did versions of it in six different languages, to go round the world. The German version was fucking hilarious, just really brutal. Everything sounded so aggressive and rude. The girl sounded like she was going to get out of the chair and stab you after she'd finished her monologue. [talking about his ad for Playstation, Mental Wealth]
Music production
In 2004/2005, Cunningham took a sabbatical from filmmaking to learn about music production and recording and develop his own music projects. In December 2007 Cunningham produced two tracks, "Three Decades" and "Primary Colours", for Primary Colours, the second album by The Horrors. In the summer of 2008, due to scheduling conflicts with his feature film script writing he couldn't work on the rest of the album which was subsequently recorded by Geoff Barrow from Portishead. In 2008, he produced and arranged a new version of 'I Feel Love' for the Gucci commercial that he also directed. He travelled to Nashville to work with Donna Summer to record a brand new vocal for it.
Earlier work in film included model making, prosthetic make-up and concept illustrations for Hardware and Dust Devil with director Richard Stanley, as well as Nightbreed. In 1990–1992 he contributed the occasional cover painting and strip for Judge Dredd Megazine, working under the pseudonym Chris Halls, the surname of his stepfather.
other Filmography projects Chris Cunningham has played a major role in:
"Second Bad Vilbel" (1996) video for Autechre
"Back With The Killer Again" (1996) video for The Auteurs
"Light Aircraft on Fire" (1996) video for The Auteurs
"Another Day" (1996) video for Lodestar
"Space Junkie" (1996) video for Holy Barbarians
"36 Degrees" (1996) video for Placebo
"Personally" (1997) video for 12 Rounds
"Jesus Coming in for the Kill" (1997) video for Lifes Addiction
"The Next Big Thing" (1997) video for Jesus Jones
"Tranquillizer" (1997) video for Geneva
"No More Talk" (1997) video for Dubstar
"Something To Say" (1997) video for Jocasta
"Come To Daddy" (1997) video for Aphex Twin
"Only You" (1998) video for Portishead
"Frozen" (1998) video for Madonna
"Come On My Selector" (1998) video for Squarepusher
"All Is Full of Love" (1999) video for Björk
"Windowlicker" (1999) video for Aphex Twin
"Afrika Shox" (1999) video for Leftfield and Afrika Bambaataa
"Mental Wealth" (1999) commercial for PlayStation
"Flex" (2000), using sounds created by Aphex Twin
"Monkey Drummer" (2001), using "Mt Saint Michel + Saint Michaels mount" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
"Rubber Johnny" (2005), using "Afx237 V7" from Aphex Twin's album Drukqs
"Sheena Is A Parasite" (2006), video for The Horrors
"Gucci Flora" (2009) commercial for Gucci Perfume
here is a URL to a chris cunningham interview by pixelvision which questions him on his short film titled 'Rubber Johnny'
http://www.pixelsurgeon.com/interviews/interview.php?id=181
Audiences reactions to his work:
Generaly, when searching and browsing through reviews and comments left by veiwers of chris cunningham's work, you find that people find his work inspirational and unique in its concepts and amazing special effects .I print screened these customer reviews of the Chris Cunningham DVD from Amazon.com.
the reviews rate the DVD as 10 out of 10, one of the comments someone left said "In short, this looks to be a superb portfolio of work, and something you'll come to time and time again, both for yourself and to show any friends that come to visit. Fantastic."
Chris Cunningham's work also recieves tremmendous praise from veiwers on YouTube. i print screened commetns posted on the short film 'Rubber Johnny' by aphex twin and Chris.
Textual analysis of two contemporary music videos
Music video textual analysis
Slipknot – Duality
The band and the song,
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, formed in 1995. Slipknot consists of nine members. The current band members are Sid Wilson, Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn "Clown" Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor. Each member of the band wears a unique mask.
The video for Slipknot’s single ‘Duality’. Duality was originally released as a CD single on May 4th, 2004. On May 25th the single was released on 7-inch red vinyl to coincide with the release of the album. To promote the single, the band also made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The music video, which was directed by Tony Petrossian, was produced at a cost between $300,000 and $500,000 and was recorded on March 27th, 2004. The video was shot on location at a fan's house in West Des Moines, Iowa, the aftermath of which resulted in the family asking the band to replace an extensive list of objects and fittings which were damaged or destroyed during the video shoot. Roadrunner Records provided the family with roughly $50,000 as compensation. Mid-way through shooting the video, the band and fans were asked to avoid jumping around too much, as it would have resulted in either the floor caving in or the entire house collapsing.
Video evaluation
The overall Mise-en-scene of the video is to help capture the atmosphere of a live performance. The natural lighting in the video also helps convay an aspect of realism into the video. although the performance is based inside an american house, the real Slipknot fans running through the real garden and smashing into a real house really add to the atmosphere that is captured. The editing in the video is fairly basic, there isnt any CGI or anything complicated to confuse the veiwer. The basic editing works effectly in capturing an energetic vibe throughout the video.
The video starts with a close up slow motion shot of a fans facial expression. the begining of the video starts off very slowly and gradualy grows in intensity. The song builds up at 0:21 and punches its full intensity at 0:35. the very start of the video cuts to a large crowd of fans running towards the camera, which is recorded from behind a window with it in its foreground; this gives the video a dull, damp atmosphere and shows the videos desaturated colour. This camera shot may be a point of view shot but this can be argued when watching the video. The running fans are recorded in slow motion; this really allows the aggression and excitement of the fans to take effect. As the song switches in intensity the video cuts to shots inside the house of the band performing in very close quarters with the fans, this helps to build an incredible atmosphere. The video constantly switches between clips of the band performing and fans destroying the house and the surrounding environment. At one point in the video, when lead singer Corey Taylor sings the lyrics, "You cannot kill what you did not create", the words are seen painted on the garage door behind the crowd of fans which is a very powerful example of Mise-en-scene.
Near the end of the song there is a coda section where the music and singing builds up to a highly energetic section. Prior to this at 2:22 Corey seemingly calms the crowd with an outstretched arm, this is followed with Corey pacing through the crowd repeating the lyrics "All I've got, all I've got is insane". This section in the video is deffinately one of the most intense that it gets. the scene cuts and an even larger crowd is situated outside watching the performance. This is filmed using a series of hand held cameras situated and pacing through the crowd, this allows the viewer to really feel as if they are in the heart of the action. The atmosphere builds and builds and then at 2:55 the chorus begins, and the crowd immediately continue to destroy their surroundings in a more frantic manner than before, shortly after this the song suddenly ends.
Though out the video there is powerful imagery that mainly consist of cinematically intense close ups and wide shots which really help deliver the song.most of the shots are captured using hand held cameras, using hand held cameras allows us to really get in to the centre of the mayhem that is unfolding in the video. The shots used are shaky, unfocused and disorientated. The video has a desaturated haze to it throughout the performance. The colours and mise-en-scene are very bleak, but this proves effective as it helps to capture the action and realism of the performance. The video follows the performance by slipknot and does not contain any obvious narrative or concept. Exept the idea of a house being gradualy destroyed by fans.
The lyrics of the song are very powerfuli in the video, the aggression and the chaos of the video feeds from the lyrics of the song and the energy they create. they build up before each chorus and the words "i push my fingers into my... eyes" hold significant value in creating the atmosphere and carnage caused in the video. The video is a live performance, so you could say that the chaos is in direct effect of the lyrics and the power of the song. The slow motion destruction of the house carries as powerfull of a message as the lyrics create because the destruction is fueled by the lyrics. I think the song and lyrics can be best surmised as coming to terms with yourself. There is definitely hidden messages in this song behind the lyrics. which Goes quite well with the album named "subliminal". At first the person is suffering and raging against everything. What makes it painful is they are stretched out between their mortal side and their state as a higher being.
"I've wished for this
I've bitched for that
I've left beind this little fact
You cannot kill what you did not create"
i think this section of the lyrics means that no matter what, you can drive yourself through hell and back, you can torture and punish yourself, you can dig, dig, DIG, but you cannot destroy who you are. Simply because you are not who you created. its about coming to terms. Everyone has a certain potential and everyone is different. but Does it ever occur that there is some strange reason that there seems to be a unique path we gravitate towards, yet we do not have the full understanding until later in our lives.
Thinking about the genre of the song. The band has stated that their primary influences include Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Judas Priest, Korn, White Zombie, Led Zeppelin and Beastie Boys. Death metal, black metal and heavy metal have been mentioned as a key influence on the band's musical direction and these bands and musical genres express themselves in the duality video. The intended audience of the video is the fans of Slipknot or Heavy metal in general. I choose to analys this video becuase it is one of the most famous songs by slipknot and one of there best, i also like the video because of the atmosphere it creates. This video is typical of a heavy metal song becuase it is fast and energetic. it builds up in sections and releases in outbursts of energy. The Mise-en-scene is also typical of a band of this genre. Destruction and rebelation are often featured in heavy metel promos. If someone who had never seen a Slipknot watched this video they would could a good idea of what slipknot are about. The video represents the images of Slipknot very well, both are agressive, destructive and energetic. The video shows the band wearing their trademark masks and shows the image that slipknot is. Fans of slipknot would be the primary audience that the video is aimed at, although i think anyone who watched this video would feel as involved as the fans.
Audience reactions
i went onto Amazon.com and read the reviews people had left on the Slipknot Subliminal album the reviews were mainly possitive:
I print screened comments people left on youtube about the Duality video, the majority of comments are positive:
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
The band and the song
"Sabotage" is a 1994 song by the American Rap rock group Beastie Boys. It appears on their album 'Ill Communication' and is one of Beastie boys most well known hits. The song's genre is characterized as rapcore, featuring traditional rock instrumentation performed by the band members, Adrock on guitar, MCA on bass, and Mike D. on drums, the song also contains turntable scratches and heavily distorted bass guitar riffs.
The music video is very much responaible for the songs publicity and how it became so popular. It was directed by Spike Jonze and is one of his most successful promotional videos. Sabotage is played extensively on MTV as a homage to and parody of 1970s crime drama. series like Hawaii Five-0, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., Baretta, and Starsky and Hutch had a heavy influence on the video. The songit self reached the top ten in the US single charts. Beastie Boys began as a hardcore punk group in 1979 and we can see traces of their punk history through the song Sabotage. They are one of the longest lived hip-hop acts worldwide and continue to enjoy commercial and critical success even today, 25 years after the release of their debut album.
The Music Video
the "Sabotage" music video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the particular video that i have embeded in this blog, the band is shown at the start of the video, in character, as if being interviewed on a television programe, this makes the actual video seem as if it is in fact reality. the band members appear in the music video as the staring characters. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters they play are also given. For example, at 1:54 "Nathan Wind as Cochese".
The video opens suddenly with a close up image of a police car siren flashing, this first shot is in time with the music. The next few shots are put together with fast paced editing with different angles of a speeding police car, these camera shots show a mixture of interesting angles including Dutch tilts and tracking shots of moving wheels. At 0:41 the drums kick in as the car hits a stack of boxes and newspapers. The verse begins and the song builds up as one of the "cops" kicks open a wire gate. There is then a montage which continues for the rest of the first verse, the montage shows the band members kicking down doors, climbing and jumping across rooftops. The video is very fast paced throughout this section with quick paced editing. At the end of the verse, the title of the song "Sabotage" swoops in as it is sung by all three of the band members. Some scenes had to be removed when this video was shown on MTV, including a knife-fight sequence, a falling-off-a-bridge scene and a scene in which one of the men were thrown out of a car on the street.
The overall Mise-en-scene of the video supports the 1970's theme and no bright colours are used that would interfear with the concept. The video proves effective as it succesfully promoted the band and resulted in their huge publicity. The video follows a narrative of the band fighting crime in the 1970s. It is a funny take-off on old 70's cop show, having a big black cop casted as bunny for example and with the three in fake wigs and moustaches running around with a frenzied pace. This is a brilliant punkrap song and video,and is deffinately one of the best of the 90's.
The editing of the video is in time with the beat of the song all the way through the track.
The video is shot using primeraly hand held cameras, this is very effective as it gives the video a more dramtic approach and makes the viewer feel more involved in the drama unfolding. The hand held cameras are also typical of a spike jonze music video. the Mise-en-scene in the video follows the idea of a 1970s police drama, with old fashioned cars, city location, and big bushy hair and moustaches.
If someone watched 'Sabotage' without allready knowing it was a beastie boys music video, they may axtually believe that it was an introduction to a real television drama. Spike jonze's tight editing and coreography really makes The video what it is. Becuase Sabotage is very fast paced, this is done to stay in time with the song and to create the excited energetic atmosphere which is displayed in the video. the video contains alot of intertextuality, we can see that Spike Jonze has taken ideas from lots of cop programes and films like lethal weapon. The idea of having to rescue a teammate and defuse a bomb is typical of a 1970s drama. I choose to analyse this video becuase it is one of my favourite songs by Beastie Boys and i find the video funny and entertaining.
Audience Reactions
i went onto Amazon.com and took a look at the reviews for the ablum 'ill communication' the comments and reviews on there were all possitive. although i could not capture an image of the web page this is the URL:
http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Communication-Beastie-Boys/dp/B000002TP7/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1269885310&sr=8-4
i print screened reviews and comments people had left for the video on youtube:
the comments say things like "best video in my book, and thats where it counts." and "greatest music video of all time"
Slipknot – Duality
The band and the song,
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, formed in 1995. Slipknot consists of nine members. The current band members are Sid Wilson, Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn "Clown" Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor. Each member of the band wears a unique mask.
The video for Slipknot’s single ‘Duality’. Duality was originally released as a CD single on May 4th, 2004. On May 25th the single was released on 7-inch red vinyl to coincide with the release of the album. To promote the single, the band also made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The music video, which was directed by Tony Petrossian, was produced at a cost between $300,000 and $500,000 and was recorded on March 27th, 2004. The video was shot on location at a fan's house in West Des Moines, Iowa, the aftermath of which resulted in the family asking the band to replace an extensive list of objects and fittings which were damaged or destroyed during the video shoot. Roadrunner Records provided the family with roughly $50,000 as compensation. Mid-way through shooting the video, the band and fans were asked to avoid jumping around too much, as it would have resulted in either the floor caving in or the entire house collapsing.
Video evaluation
The overall Mise-en-scene of the video is to help capture the atmosphere of a live performance. The natural lighting in the video also helps convay an aspect of realism into the video. although the performance is based inside an american house, the real Slipknot fans running through the real garden and smashing into a real house really add to the atmosphere that is captured. The editing in the video is fairly basic, there isnt any CGI or anything complicated to confuse the veiwer. The basic editing works effectly in capturing an energetic vibe throughout the video.
The video starts with a close up slow motion shot of a fans facial expression. the begining of the video starts off very slowly and gradualy grows in intensity. The song builds up at 0:21 and punches its full intensity at 0:35. the very start of the video cuts to a large crowd of fans running towards the camera, which is recorded from behind a window with it in its foreground; this gives the video a dull, damp atmosphere and shows the videos desaturated colour. This camera shot may be a point of view shot but this can be argued when watching the video. The running fans are recorded in slow motion; this really allows the aggression and excitement of the fans to take effect. As the song switches in intensity the video cuts to shots inside the house of the band performing in very close quarters with the fans, this helps to build an incredible atmosphere. The video constantly switches between clips of the band performing and fans destroying the house and the surrounding environment. At one point in the video, when lead singer Corey Taylor sings the lyrics, "You cannot kill what you did not create", the words are seen painted on the garage door behind the crowd of fans which is a very powerful example of Mise-en-scene.
Near the end of the song there is a coda section where the music and singing builds up to a highly energetic section. Prior to this at 2:22 Corey seemingly calms the crowd with an outstretched arm, this is followed with Corey pacing through the crowd repeating the lyrics "All I've got, all I've got is insane". This section in the video is deffinately one of the most intense that it gets. the scene cuts and an even larger crowd is situated outside watching the performance. This is filmed using a series of hand held cameras situated and pacing through the crowd, this allows the viewer to really feel as if they are in the heart of the action. The atmosphere builds and builds and then at 2:55 the chorus begins, and the crowd immediately continue to destroy their surroundings in a more frantic manner than before, shortly after this the song suddenly ends.
Though out the video there is powerful imagery that mainly consist of cinematically intense close ups and wide shots which really help deliver the song.most of the shots are captured using hand held cameras, using hand held cameras allows us to really get in to the centre of the mayhem that is unfolding in the video. The shots used are shaky, unfocused and disorientated. The video has a desaturated haze to it throughout the performance. The colours and mise-en-scene are very bleak, but this proves effective as it helps to capture the action and realism of the performance. The video follows the performance by slipknot and does not contain any obvious narrative or concept. Exept the idea of a house being gradualy destroyed by fans.
The lyrics of the song are very powerfuli in the video, the aggression and the chaos of the video feeds from the lyrics of the song and the energy they create. they build up before each chorus and the words "i push my fingers into my... eyes" hold significant value in creating the atmosphere and carnage caused in the video. The video is a live performance, so you could say that the chaos is in direct effect of the lyrics and the power of the song. The slow motion destruction of the house carries as powerfull of a message as the lyrics create because the destruction is fueled by the lyrics. I think the song and lyrics can be best surmised as coming to terms with yourself. There is definitely hidden messages in this song behind the lyrics. which Goes quite well with the album named "subliminal". At first the person is suffering and raging against everything. What makes it painful is they are stretched out between their mortal side and their state as a higher being.
"I've wished for this
I've bitched for that
I've left beind this little fact
You cannot kill what you did not create"
i think this section of the lyrics means that no matter what, you can drive yourself through hell and back, you can torture and punish yourself, you can dig, dig, DIG, but you cannot destroy who you are. Simply because you are not who you created. its about coming to terms. Everyone has a certain potential and everyone is different. but Does it ever occur that there is some strange reason that there seems to be a unique path we gravitate towards, yet we do not have the full understanding until later in our lives.
Thinking about the genre of the song. The band has stated that their primary influences include Kiss, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Judas Priest, Korn, White Zombie, Led Zeppelin and Beastie Boys. Death metal, black metal and heavy metal have been mentioned as a key influence on the band's musical direction and these bands and musical genres express themselves in the duality video. The intended audience of the video is the fans of Slipknot or Heavy metal in general. I choose to analys this video becuase it is one of the most famous songs by slipknot and one of there best, i also like the video because of the atmosphere it creates. This video is typical of a heavy metal song becuase it is fast and energetic. it builds up in sections and releases in outbursts of energy. The Mise-en-scene is also typical of a band of this genre. Destruction and rebelation are often featured in heavy metel promos. If someone who had never seen a Slipknot watched this video they would could a good idea of what slipknot are about. The video represents the images of Slipknot very well, both are agressive, destructive and energetic. The video shows the band wearing their trademark masks and shows the image that slipknot is. Fans of slipknot would be the primary audience that the video is aimed at, although i think anyone who watched this video would feel as involved as the fans.
Audience reactions
i went onto Amazon.com and read the reviews people had left on the Slipknot Subliminal album the reviews were mainly possitive:
I print screened comments people left on youtube about the Duality video, the majority of comments are positive:
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
The band and the song
"Sabotage" is a 1994 song by the American Rap rock group Beastie Boys. It appears on their album 'Ill Communication' and is one of Beastie boys most well known hits. The song's genre is characterized as rapcore, featuring traditional rock instrumentation performed by the band members, Adrock on guitar, MCA on bass, and Mike D. on drums, the song also contains turntable scratches and heavily distorted bass guitar riffs.
The music video is very much responaible for the songs publicity and how it became so popular. It was directed by Spike Jonze and is one of his most successful promotional videos. Sabotage is played extensively on MTV as a homage to and parody of 1970s crime drama. series like Hawaii Five-0, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., Baretta, and Starsky and Hutch had a heavy influence on the video. The songit self reached the top ten in the US single charts. Beastie Boys began as a hardcore punk group in 1979 and we can see traces of their punk history through the song Sabotage. They are one of the longest lived hip-hop acts worldwide and continue to enjoy commercial and critical success even today, 25 years after the release of their debut album.
The Music Video
the "Sabotage" music video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the particular video that i have embeded in this blog, the band is shown at the start of the video, in character, as if being interviewed on a television programe, this makes the actual video seem as if it is in fact reality. the band members appear in the music video as the staring characters. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters they play are also given. For example, at 1:54 "Nathan Wind as Cochese".
The video opens suddenly with a close up image of a police car siren flashing, this first shot is in time with the music. The next few shots are put together with fast paced editing with different angles of a speeding police car, these camera shots show a mixture of interesting angles including Dutch tilts and tracking shots of moving wheels. At 0:41 the drums kick in as the car hits a stack of boxes and newspapers. The verse begins and the song builds up as one of the "cops" kicks open a wire gate. There is then a montage which continues for the rest of the first verse, the montage shows the band members kicking down doors, climbing and jumping across rooftops. The video is very fast paced throughout this section with quick paced editing. At the end of the verse, the title of the song "Sabotage" swoops in as it is sung by all three of the band members. Some scenes had to be removed when this video was shown on MTV, including a knife-fight sequence, a falling-off-a-bridge scene and a scene in which one of the men were thrown out of a car on the street.
The overall Mise-en-scene of the video supports the 1970's theme and no bright colours are used that would interfear with the concept. The video proves effective as it succesfully promoted the band and resulted in their huge publicity. The video follows a narrative of the band fighting crime in the 1970s. It is a funny take-off on old 70's cop show, having a big black cop casted as bunny for example and with the three in fake wigs and moustaches running around with a frenzied pace. This is a brilliant punkrap song and video,and is deffinately one of the best of the 90's.
The editing of the video is in time with the beat of the song all the way through the track.
The video is shot using primeraly hand held cameras, this is very effective as it gives the video a more dramtic approach and makes the viewer feel more involved in the drama unfolding. The hand held cameras are also typical of a spike jonze music video. the Mise-en-scene in the video follows the idea of a 1970s police drama, with old fashioned cars, city location, and big bushy hair and moustaches.
If someone watched 'Sabotage' without allready knowing it was a beastie boys music video, they may axtually believe that it was an introduction to a real television drama. Spike jonze's tight editing and coreography really makes The video what it is. Becuase Sabotage is very fast paced, this is done to stay in time with the song and to create the excited energetic atmosphere which is displayed in the video. the video contains alot of intertextuality, we can see that Spike Jonze has taken ideas from lots of cop programes and films like lethal weapon. The idea of having to rescue a teammate and defuse a bomb is typical of a 1970s drama. I choose to analyse this video becuase it is one of my favourite songs by Beastie Boys and i find the video funny and entertaining.
Audience Reactions
i went onto Amazon.com and took a look at the reviews for the ablum 'ill communication' the comments and reviews on there were all possitive. although i could not capture an image of the web page this is the URL:
http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Communication-Beastie-Boys/dp/B000002TP7/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1269885310&sr=8-4
i print screened reviews and comments people had left for the video on youtube:
the comments say things like "best video in my book, and thats where it counts." and "greatest music video of all time"
purposes of music videos
A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music or a song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Music videos are primarily used for the promotion of music singles by the artist. Music videos have become a necessity for bands and artists over the past 4 decades, videos are sometimes remembered more than the actual song. The first ever music videos were just basic recordings of of an artist performing their own song. during the 60’s,
The Beatles took the idea of using filming a performance to promote themselves by introducing concept and a narrative to the performance. This allowed them to promote singles without having to constantly be on tour. Alot of other artists copied this idea. Bob and The Animals also made very important and memorable videos around the tim eof the beatles.
During the 70’s music videos had become a very important part of promoting songs for all major artists. Artists were competing to come up with the most memorable conceptual ideas.
David Bowie took the idea of the pop promo a stage further, making what were essentially short films charting the story of a character named Ziggy Stardust. The renowned Rolling Stone photojournalist Mick Rock worked with Bowie to create a series of short films which allowed Bowie to basically turn into this character and for the audience to see him.
This collaboration was also important becasue Mick Rock was actually a photographer not a TV/Film maker, he was also given complete control of the entire project. This idea is something that influenced the way music videos would be made in the future.
Queens Bohemian Rhapsody was also a very famous promotionla video. In the 80’s MTV was launched. MTV was a cable television channel dedicated souly to playing music videos. This new channel proved very succesful.
Budgets rose for music videos and the directors involved were becoming more famous, and their ideas and images became more challenging. The first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's 1982 hit "Body Language." Due to its homoerotic content, plus lots of skin and sweat. it was branded unsuitable for a television audience at the time. However, MTV did show Olivia Newton-John's 1981 video for the song "Physical", which lavished camera time on male models working out in string bikinis, ultimately pairing off to walk to the men's locker rooms holding hands. The video for "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran, which featured topless women mud wrestling was also banned by the BBC. Today we can access these videos easily via bedsites like YouTube.
The video for Micheal Jackson's Thriller took the idea of a music video to a new level, the video was basicly a short film including the song, it was 14 minutes long and was filled with scripted speech and sound effects. It was directed by a film director, John Landis, and went on to be nominated for an Oscar. The video was shown on MTV and shown as a special event on other channels. It was also released on video cassette. Thriller had a huge effect on music videos and highlighted show the world how powerful the music video could be.
The Thriller video really captures the meaning of a promotional video, and is recognised as one of the most successful promotional videos of all time. The 80’s and early 90’s contained lots of artist releasing more and more challenging videos. Duran Duran and Madonna released some of the more controversial videos at this time.
during the early 90's and today, the music video has become an expected part of a bands new single release, and bands use the videos to push their image and ideas towards a wider audience. One of the biggest success stories relating to music videos during the 90's was the rise of the american grunge band Nirvana. In 1991, Smells Like Teen Spirit was about to release as a teaser for their second album Nevermind. The record company were expecting sales of around 50,000 copies for the album. However, 2 months after its release, MTV decided to place the song on its main playlist. This resulted in the video being showed several times every day and led to success of both the single, which reached number 1 in the US billboard charts 3 months after release, as well as the band. Nirvana's huge international success really shows the power that MTV held.
Many famous film directors started off their careers by creating music videos and the 90’s was responsible for creating the careers of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham and other famous directors, sometimes the video director becomes famous than the actual band.
Also with the rise of the internet and websites like 'Youtube', the music video has found a whole new distribution channel and it is much easier for videos and bands to get recognised. Artists no longer have to rely on physicaly releasing singles or appearing on MTV, anyone can now access music videos whenever they want. The effect of the internet has also been the fall in the amount of music videos that MTV now play. The main MTV channel now actually plays very little music videos, limited to just a single chart show each week. Instead, it shows soap operas, realty and teen drama programming all aimed at an audience of teenagers. It also means that artists no longer need expensive budgets and anyone can easily watch their favourite music videos.
more people using the internet has also led to a whole new market of homemade videos and parody acts. Fans of bands can now make their own music videos to their favourite songs. Daft Punk famously saw a fan made clip of the song “Stronger” and used the video as the official promo for the song. The soul purspose of a music video is to promote the artist and sales.
#
in reaction to this video hundreds of copy cat user generates content was created giving the song and the band wider publicity and increases popularity here is another famous user generated video for the song 'Stronger'.
The Beatles took the idea of using filming a performance to promote themselves by introducing concept and a narrative to the performance. This allowed them to promote singles without having to constantly be on tour. Alot of other artists copied this idea. Bob and The Animals also made very important and memorable videos around the tim eof the beatles.
During the 70’s music videos had become a very important part of promoting songs for all major artists. Artists were competing to come up with the most memorable conceptual ideas.
David Bowie took the idea of the pop promo a stage further, making what were essentially short films charting the story of a character named Ziggy Stardust. The renowned Rolling Stone photojournalist Mick Rock worked with Bowie to create a series of short films which allowed Bowie to basically turn into this character and for the audience to see him.
This collaboration was also important becasue Mick Rock was actually a photographer not a TV/Film maker, he was also given complete control of the entire project. This idea is something that influenced the way music videos would be made in the future.
Queens Bohemian Rhapsody was also a very famous promotionla video. In the 80’s MTV was launched. MTV was a cable television channel dedicated souly to playing music videos. This new channel proved very succesful.
Budgets rose for music videos and the directors involved were becoming more famous, and their ideas and images became more challenging. The first video to be banned by MTV was Queen's 1982 hit "Body Language." Due to its homoerotic content, plus lots of skin and sweat. it was branded unsuitable for a television audience at the time. However, MTV did show Olivia Newton-John's 1981 video for the song "Physical", which lavished camera time on male models working out in string bikinis, ultimately pairing off to walk to the men's locker rooms holding hands. The video for "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran, which featured topless women mud wrestling was also banned by the BBC. Today we can access these videos easily via bedsites like YouTube.
The video for Micheal Jackson's Thriller took the idea of a music video to a new level, the video was basicly a short film including the song, it was 14 minutes long and was filled with scripted speech and sound effects. It was directed by a film director, John Landis, and went on to be nominated for an Oscar. The video was shown on MTV and shown as a special event on other channels. It was also released on video cassette. Thriller had a huge effect on music videos and highlighted show the world how powerful the music video could be.
The Thriller video really captures the meaning of a promotional video, and is recognised as one of the most successful promotional videos of all time. The 80’s and early 90’s contained lots of artist releasing more and more challenging videos. Duran Duran and Madonna released some of the more controversial videos at this time.
during the early 90's and today, the music video has become an expected part of a bands new single release, and bands use the videos to push their image and ideas towards a wider audience. One of the biggest success stories relating to music videos during the 90's was the rise of the american grunge band Nirvana. In 1991, Smells Like Teen Spirit was about to release as a teaser for their second album Nevermind. The record company were expecting sales of around 50,000 copies for the album. However, 2 months after its release, MTV decided to place the song on its main playlist. This resulted in the video being showed several times every day and led to success of both the single, which reached number 1 in the US billboard charts 3 months after release, as well as the band. Nirvana's huge international success really shows the power that MTV held.
Many famous film directors started off their careers by creating music videos and the 90’s was responsible for creating the careers of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham and other famous directors, sometimes the video director becomes famous than the actual band.
Also with the rise of the internet and websites like 'Youtube', the music video has found a whole new distribution channel and it is much easier for videos and bands to get recognised. Artists no longer have to rely on physicaly releasing singles or appearing on MTV, anyone can now access music videos whenever they want. The effect of the internet has also been the fall in the amount of music videos that MTV now play. The main MTV channel now actually plays very little music videos, limited to just a single chart show each week. Instead, it shows soap operas, realty and teen drama programming all aimed at an audience of teenagers. It also means that artists no longer need expensive budgets and anyone can easily watch their favourite music videos.
more people using the internet has also led to a whole new market of homemade videos and parody acts. Fans of bands can now make their own music videos to their favourite songs. Daft Punk famously saw a fan made clip of the song “Stronger” and used the video as the official promo for the song. The soul purspose of a music video is to promote the artist and sales.
#
in reaction to this video hundreds of copy cat user generates content was created giving the song and the band wider publicity and increases popularity here is another famous user generated video for the song 'Stronger'.
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