One of our initial ideas for an aspect of the music video is doing time lapse. We liked this idea because it could give a spooky and focused effect. It forces the audience to concentrate on the protagonist of the narrative while it indicates that this person watches the world run past him. It raises questions of relevance for the protagonist and makes them feel useless and unnoticed. The video we were influenced by is Ed Sheeran ‘The A Team’ where this element is used very effectively to make the character feel ignored.

From this influence we also adapted an idea from Aphex Twin ‘Come to Daddy’. We developed the idea of being unnoticed and brainstormed that someone could easily do something crazy to become noticed. In ‘Come To Daddy’ the whole atmosphere adopts a disturbing essence where we see grown men’s head on little girls bodies, an almost demonic figure of a human who looks like a skeleton and messed up satanic face stuck in a TV. We were inspired to do something unsettling but with a lot of meaning.

Initial Ideas

Original song idea

This song has no video to accompany it, therefore our idea is original, without any influence from previous videos. The lyrics themselves were our main inspiration to choose this track, as we wanted a music video including the unnerving themes in the song.

Media Music Video Analysis.

Give it Away- Red Hot Chili Peppers

One category that a selection of music videos falls into is ‘disjuncture’, a video that provides an imaginative and completely abstract feel to the song. They are normally not connected at all to the lyrics or the music or even the artists and are created by a ‘auteur’ director. As they have no obvious links they are a point of disjuncture from the song distancing the meaning from the video and just capturing it in the lyrics and the music. An example of a deep and expressive song with an almost ‘random’ video is ‘Give it Away’ by the Red Hot Chili Peppers directed by Stephane Sednaoui. When the French fashion photographer first started working on this video MTV judged it as too ‘absurd’ to show on TV. However, this is the whole point of having a video that’s fits into the disjuncture category and the chili peppers aimed for something that was visually distinct.

In juxtaposition to the rhythm and beat of the music the black and white aspect made the video seem almost poetic and used authentic art covering their bodies in silver acrylic paint. They wanted to do something where they were not influenced from the actual song or the outside world and wanted the video to suggest a whole different matter. They did this by exploring a variety of cinematography using adventurous shots and following Goodwin’s theory of marketing the band by having a lot of close up’s. Sednaoui shot the whole video over again in different shots and angles so it would give the video a poetic but vibrant atmosphere. They also used reverse film effects to emphasise their extreme costumes, which connoted the exuberant nature. Kiedis commented on the final piece as “like nothing else”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers don’t actually fit into one definite genre, even though they are considered as mainstream rock they also have elements of funk and psychedelic rock. However they still use the generic conventions of an American rock band as in their video ‘Give it away now’ they still have a large amount of footage focused on them playing their instruments. This is a typical convention for all sub genres of rock as it proves they are more about their music and not their image. However, RHCP contradicts this convention as although they concentrate on their music they still have the main focus on their exotic abstract image that is emphasized by the exuberant mise-en-scene. They are surrounded by a huge desert but it does not steal the emphasis from the band itself instead it multiplies the crazy atmosphere the video gives off.

Lady Gaga – You and I music video analysis

Director - Tim Burton

The video falls into the category of amplification. It consists of performance and has a almost understandable narrative, but the lyrics help the narrative be understood in the video. There is still a direct link to the song in a sense that the lyrics include Nebraska over and over, and the location for the video was Nebraska, also the fact that the video is about a girl running all the way to Nebraska for the man she loves, is demonstrated in the performance and video over all. Controversial rumors are embraced by the artist and used as art, and is portrayed in an interesting way.

The camera shots used are of a typical music video. A series of several different shots including close-ups, long shots and crane shots are distributed throughout the video. From all the shots used, the director, record company and star get to portray exactly what they want.

The camera movement carried out in the video concentrates purely on the star. Following the movement and dancing, the camera pans around the artist a lot, to show every part of the overall look (outfit, hair and make-up), this shows the viewer what this particular artist is all about. The camera follows gaga walking and running, so all the shots are not just still ones, the camera also pans around the star when still and when dancing to give the video depth.

The video starts out of focus, this is done when editing to give the video the dazed + confusing start. Some of the shots are edited to be longer than some of the others, this mixes it up a bit, so you get to see everything, most importantly the bits the director and record label want you to see. The video constantly cuts, jumping from gaga and ‘Jo’ on the piano, to several different locations and different weird + wonderful outfits. There are fast cuts in the dancing scene’s filmed from all different shots from all different angles.

In this particular video there wasn’t much post-production digital effects. There is only the montage near the end in the ‘marriage’ scene.

The high key lighting used highlights the artists throughout, making her stand out from the dancers and location. In the barn scene, natural lighting is used from through the window to give the barn an old and misty feel.

The overall artist’s conception for the video implies a narrative although not easily understood by everyone. The video defiantly exaggerates the stars image in way of the mis-on-scene. The outfits, the make-up, the hair and overall look to the whole video are all exaggerated to shock the viewer and to make everybody have some sort of opinion on her. The location was obviously thought about as it was filmed in Nebraska, which is also the city repeatedly used in the lyrics and so, it all links together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9YMU0WeBwU&ob=av2e

Analysis of Music Video 1: Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"

The video for “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys is an illustrative parody of 70’s/80’s “cop films” and dramas; it shows this with the Mise-en-scene, the camera angles and the editing. Throughout it contains close ups of each of the band members dressed in different costumes to suit the theme of the music video. For example each member has a moustache and is wearing shades. This is to show the stereotype of the characters in cop films. The stereotype of 80’s cops and this type of action film is confirmed throughout the music video for comedy purposes. For example many car chases occur in the video, along with action-filled chases on rooftops.

The camera angles throughout the music video cut at each beat, in a fast pace to give an action feel, the camera angles consist of crane shots, tracking shots, and high and low angle shots. This great variety of angles along with the large amount of camera movement emphasize the theme greatly also. The fast camera movement and tracking shots are the largest factor in helping the 80’s cop parody theme. It is not conventional to Goodwin’s theory however as the track does not fit the genre characteristics. The song is of the hip hop genre, however it does not contain all the glamour hip hop has, along with no voyeuristic treatment of women’s bodies, which is generally linked to the hip hop genre.

The song is conventional in a lot of aspects however. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, along with the music and visuals. For example the whole theme of the song, which is called “Sabotage”, relates to the theme of cops in the video as sabotage is something criminals take part in. The lyrics are based around this theme, showing they are linked to the theme of the video, for example when the lyrics mimic the reaction to falling, there is a clip of a man falling from a building. There is a relationship between the music and visuals in the fact that the shot changes to the beat, and also that when the pace of the music speeds up; there is a fast-paced scenario occurring in the video such as a car chase. There isn’t exactly a high use of close ups in the track, this is because the Beastie boys are relying on the narrative and the theme of the video to give them popularity and to know who they are, rather than many close ups. Also they don’t really need the public to know what they look like, they want the public to know them for their music, and their exciting videos.

The main part of Goodwin’s music video analysis this video confirms would be the convention of using intertextual references, because this video is one large intertextual reference to 70’s and 80’s cop programs. This is used for comedic purpose, such as when there is a clip of one cop eating a donut, which is stereotypical of policemen. Usually music videos contain some performance in them however this one doesn’t, it doesn’t even contain a blend of performance and narrative, which is unconventional for a music video of the illustrative genre, especially as the lyrics and music fit the visuals.

I personally find this music video effective because it’s grabbing, as it contains a fast-paced narrative, and the music and lyrics fit the whole tone of the song without it being too conventional. It’s enjoyable to watch while listening to the music because it’s quite comedic while at the same time it’s action-packed and interesting.

Music Videos

Stars in the music industry all have their own unique image that are created and artificial images which make them more interesting, these images are shown in music videos, e.g. ‘Lady Gaga’ and her weird personality plus her strange clothing, ‘Michael Jackson’ and his active dancing style, ‘Tyler the creator’ and his crazy attitude. Even if the star has a complete different personality in their offset life, they still put on that image.

Music videos come under 2 categories narrative or performance, narrative music video having some sort of story involved and performance being when they show the artist(s) using their instruments most rock music videos use this

Illustration, amplification or disjuncture are another set of categories music videos go under describing how the video is linked to the music either being illustration in which the video follows a simple narrative and visualizes the music in a simple manner, amplification music video’s also have a link to the lyrics and music but the idea and meaning of the lyrics are amplified by the director through the use of unusual ideas and surreal approaches, or disjuncture in which the video doesn’t have any clear link and are usually completely abstract.

When doing music videos there are 6 questions you need to be concerned about:

• · Whether the video falls into the genre’s characteristics
• · If there’s a link between the lyrics and visuals
• · If the music and video have any relation
• · If the video has lots of close-ups of the artist(s) because they may need to be publicized more
• · If there is a frequent notion of the artists being looked at, and the voyeuristic treatment of women’s bodies
• · If there’re intertexual references’ to other media, such as TV and other music videos.