Recreation Video

To study what makes music videos so good, we were asked to recreate one. We chose to do Mika's 'Grace Kelly' because of how easy the video was to recreate. Here's our recreation and the original:

            
           

Californication Storyboard

To help us gain an understanding of how many shots and different scenes can be required to make a music video, we were tasked with creating a storyboard for an extract of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication. Here is the original music video and my storyboard:



           

Studio Ideas

For our music video, we have to create a production studio. Here's an idea for the logo and title of our production studio:

The sketchy look to our logo gives off the indie vibe we wanted to achieve, whereas the title 'Engineered' implies that we are still perfectionists who make great music videos.

Band Logos and Designs

For our coursework this year, we have to create a band, a website, and a CD cover. To get a headstart on my work, we've created some designs which can be used on our website. We're planning to get these designs printed onto actual shirts, in order to have a 'band photoshoot'.

Also, we've decided to name the band 'Toxic City', as the name gives off a pop punk vibe, which is the genre of music we decided our band specialises in. 

Recommended Music Videos

For this task, we were asked to do a textual analysis of five recommended music videos. Here are the five I was asked to comment on:

Panic! At the Disco - Emperor's New Clothes

          

This music video is clearly a narrative/conceptual video. What I like about it is the drastic lighting, that often flickers a bright white, and the carefully constructed mise-en-scene. Furthermore, I like how the video seems to be filmed in as little camera shots as possible, with smoothly edited transitions but jerky movements from the obviously central lead singer. Overall, it gives the entire video a very creepy vibe.

       

Liam Gallagher - Wall of Glass

          

This music video is definitely a conceptual video, and what I like about it is the constantly changing lighting colours, that gives an eerie and indie feel to the whole video. Also, I like the way the camera plays with angles and movements to make certain scenes seem unaffected by gravity. Furthermore, the editing techniques in this video are highly professional, which increases the strangeness, just like the choice to play with mirrors does.

Green Day - Basket Case

         

This music video was famously shot in black and white, and each individual shot was recoloured, to give the entire piece a strange, neon look. I like the level of detail that went into the mise-en-scene of this conceptual/performance video. Furthermore, I like how in certain scenes the lighting is harsh, and there's a stark contrast between the rest of the image and the lighting.

Paramore - Hard Times

         

Honestly, I love this entire video. The mise-en-scene is carefully constructed to give this conceptual/performance video a weird, edgy and 80s vibe. I like the way the video is editing to give the overall feel of an 80s kids instructional video, the close-ups of the instruments, and the pastel colour scheme. The music video clearly has a lot of close-ups of the lead singer too, while keeping the band in a lot of the other shots. Furthermore, the camera shots also seem to be very smooth pans or zooms, which fits the 80s feel perfectly.

Circa Waves - Fire That Burns

          

The most spectacular things about this music video are the beautiful lighting, strong narrative, and the carefully picked colours to emphasise the scene. The bright reds and lush greens really leave an impressionable impact on the viewer. Furthermore, this video fits all the tropes of a cheesy murder mystery, with the frequent quick zooms and strong lighting cues when people are about to die.

Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is a condition where, upon hearing music, a person is said to experience emotions in their other senses. For example, some people are said to see colours, or even taste the music. In artists, it is quite a common trait, with notable artists such as Billy Joel, Pharrell Williams and Patrick Stump all openly speaking about their condition, and even Vincent van Gogh was documented as associating piano keys with colours.

For our task, we listened to George Michael's 'A Different Corner', and were asked to plan a music video for it based on how the music felt. Here are my results:

As you can see, I felt that the music was full of green and blue colours, and should be represented with natural imagery, lip-synching and a lot of camera fades. Upon reflection, I think that maybe I may have synaesthesia.

Tester Piece

             

This 30 second music video was created to help us understand the camera better, and give us a better understanding of techniques used in conventional music videos. We decided to make this into a lyric video, in accordance with the newfound popularity of these, and to emphasise the practice that went into lip-synching.

Here are some photos from the set:

Textual Analysis of an Iconic Music Video

Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

        

This video was so iconic, 'Hungry Like the Wolf' won Duran Duran international fame by helping them break into the US market. It was directed by Russell Mulcahy and was filmed in the jungles of Sri Lanka, giving it an unmistakably 'Indiana Jones' vibe. 

                     

The band help to promote the inter-textual references to 'Indiana Jones'- one of Goodwin's Conventions- by dressing Simon Le Bon in the famous sable fedora and with a similar colour scheme to Indiana Jones' outfits. Furthermore, the establishing shots and quick scene transitions of marketplaces and jungles help to further establish the relationship between Duran Duran and Indiana Jones through the mise-en-scene.

Duran Duran:

Indiana Jones:

Another inter-textual reference is to the popular apocalyptic film 'Apocalypse Now', in which there is a famous scene where Martin Sheen rises out of the water. Duran Duran mirrors this, with a close-up of Simon Le Bon rising out of a lagoon.

                         

                         

Furthermore, another of Goodwin's conventions of music videos displayed in Duran Duran's 'Hungry Like the Wolf' is the voyeuristic treatment of women. Aside from the fact that using a person of colour as the main love interest in a video about animalistic tendencies is racist, there is a scene where Simon Le Bon and Bermudian model Sheila Ming are chasing each other in a jungle, which is made very sexually suggestive by the use of fast-paced camera shots and the music becoming more centered on the instruments.


                         

Simon Le Bon- the lead singer- is featured more in this video than the rest of the band, because by now he is the band's iconography. An audience are encouraged to listen to Duran Duran because Simon Le Bon was viewed as attractive by an 80s audience. This is another one of Goodwin's Conventions of Music Videos, similarly to a relationship between lyrics and the video. For this, Duran Duran have used their lyrics to invoke a scene change. 

At the start of the video, they say "dark in the city", just as the scene is revealed to be a bustling city.


                         

On the next verse they sing "stalked in the forest", and the scene switches to a jungle scene with lush natural images.

                         

In conclusion, Duran Duran's 'Hungry Like the Wolf' displays several conventions of Goodwin's Music Video Conventions, clearly following these music video rules.

Goodwin's Conventions of Music Videos

In his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'- published in 1992- Andrew Goodwin details six popular conventions of music videos. Here is a list of these conventions:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics
For example, in Pop music videos, they are more likely to include dances and vibrant colours.

                      

Taylor Swift - Shake it Off

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals
For example, lyrics may be represented or contradicted with the images on screen.

                      

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

For example, the visual is represented or contradicted by the music.

                     

Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know

4. Close ups of the artist, or motifs that reoccur across their work

For example, an artist may declare a symbol as their own and present it in every music video.

                   

Panic! At the Disco - Girls/Girls/Boys

5. There is frequent reference to the notion of looking, and voyeuristic treatment of the female body

For example, a camera may appear as though it's gazing up and down a woman's body.

                    

Blondie - Call Me

6. There are often intertextual references

For example, it may reference a popular film or TV series.

                    

Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

Introduction