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"
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