Your inspirations: embed at least 3 videos on your blog that you find interesting/inspiring. Discuss why you find these inspiring.. are they aspirational/creative/promotional/moral/a mix? What is it about these videos that connects with you? Is there a sense of identity pr belonging to their "brand"? Are they typical examples of the genre... if so how, or how not
Take On Me by A-ha- I find Take On Me to be an interesting music video mainly due to the immense creativity involved in its making as it was one of the first music videos to include both life action footage and rotoscoping animation. This rotoscoping technique of tracing over life action film to create the animation let it appear to be more realistic and allowed the video to flow better, unlike most music videos which were animated in other ways with often no attempt to create realistic movement. I also admire the way in which they use the animations as a key part of the music video's storyline- another part of the music video which I found vey interesting as I enjoy it when there is some sort of storyline, as there is in take on me. This large amount of creativity was deliberately used with the intent that the interest sparked by the content of the music video would promote A-ha to the public, Take On Me had previously been released a few times but each time it had flopped, this approached worked and for the first time the song was a success. The animation style which led them to fame in the UK became part of their brand and was a feature of many of their future music videos, their costume of a black leather jacket is worn by at least one person in the band in most of their music videos. Most other bands in the same new wave, synth pop genre, although their story lines were also often fantasy based, did not include such animation, the costume in most of the other music videos also matched the elaborate fantasy them, unlike the of the time costume of take on me.
Happy Hour by the Housemartins- I find this music video to be inspiring due to he underlying moral message against the "hypocrisy and sexism of young British business types". I also enjoyed the creative use of claymation within the music video which had a similar promotional effect as having the rotoscoping in the Take On Me video had for A-ha, the band to 'broke out" and become popular in the UK, although in Happy Hour's case it was by using the very much in vogue claymation, as well as having a famous comedian cameo, instead of using a style fairly new and unusual for music videos. The members of the band often wore short-sleeved cardigans and jumpers along with shirts as they do in some parts of this video, this became the most common costume they wore and the comical dancing style present throughout the video is also another part of their brand. Other music videos in the same pop rock genre often took themselves more seriously than this one does, they often had less comical tones and wore more dramatic costumes, and most included at least one of the artists playing some kind of instrument, none of which was included in this video. However having a message behind the video and the lyrics as there is in Happy Hour was a prevalent feature of many pop rock music videos of this time.
Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen- This music video is so inspiring as it was the first full-length music video to be created- it inspired all music companies to make music videos to most of the hit songs which artist produced. They came up with the idea of making the video when they were supposed to perform on Top of the Pops but it conflicted with their tour and they feared that miming such a complex song would not work- so they sent the full-length music video of them performing to be played on the show instead. As seen in the music video Queen often wore the black leather jackets and had the long hair associated with rock bands, their use of eccentric costumes is also shown in the video, although Freddie's signature moustache is not present in the video. Many of the earliest music videos consisted mainly of shots of the band performing the song, including close-ups of the frontman singing, which can be seen in this music video, which makes sense as many of the earliest music videos would have copied the first. Throughout the videos you can see examples of the band all playing their instruments and singing along to the record as many rock videos do, the mostly black and darkened sets also reflect many rock music videos.
Monday, 27 October 2014
Saturday, 25 October 2014
Ways in which Andrew Goodwin's 6 features of music videos apply to Casper by Russian Red
1. Music video demonstrate genre characteristics.
Russian Red in an indie folk artist but the song Casper is more of an indie pop song as the song was created not long after she joined the major label of Octubre (Sony Music Spain) who would have wanted her to create more mainstream music in the hope of increasing her fame. Below you can see the ways in which the music video apply to some of the indie music video conventions.
The setting of many indie music videos low budget and are often very simple, in Casper's case this is a street, a cheap hotel room, and the bathroom the hotel room. These settings were all very simple and would have been fairly cheap to create for a typical music videos. Like in most indie music videos there are additional characters in Casper as well as the artist and all of these 'main characters' are given different costumes so it is easy to tell who each person is and follow the story, the characters are portrayed through a mixture of acting and their appearance. Props are often used in indie music videos in order to make the video appear more realistic, many props are used and are crucial to the music video for Casper in order to do this such a the phone, the vase and roses, and the bottle of pills. It is also common to show some live performance in indies music videos to give the impression that the artist loves what they do, throughout Casper Red Russian is seen to be singing the words of the song in this way. In Casper narrative is added in the music video to add to the story which is another convention in the indie genre, used to create a more interesting story which can make the music video more popular. When a narrative such as this is added diegetic sound can also be added which sometime even matches in time with the music such as the door opening and slamming on beats in the music.
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
We can see examples of illustrative images later in the piece as when she sings that 'I could be sleeping by your side' we see her slowly drift off to sleep and wake up with him in the room. Images of her sighing and clutching at the curtains in despair are amplifying the idea in the lyrics that she is in despair over man and the whole video shows a part attempted and part imaginary encounter with him. The final lyrics which are also the first lyrics of the song 'there was one and there were two and then I probably lost the count' summarises what is to happen and then has happened in the piece, saying about how, to her, there were two men in the room and then she knocked herself out.
3. There is a relationship between music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
The speed of the editing and number of shots in particular places in the piece changes depending on the speed of the music, having lots of fast shots were the music speeds up and very few, slow shots were the music slows down, ending in the longest shot of the piece at the end where the music is at its slowest . The movements on screen often happen to the beat of the music, in some cases taking the place of diegetic music such as a drum beat for a door slamming and the clash of a cymbal for a vase breaking. The tone and atmosphere created by the music seems for me to be laid-back with a touch of glamour, shown perfectly in the images through the simple hotel room with a woman dressed as a pop star.
4. The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs that recur across their work
Lots of close ups are used throughout the piece and during most of it only the artist is on screen in order to help create her star image, her artist name is also written along with the title of the music video so that more people will see and remember her name. A common motif in her most recent video is the colour red, whether this be in her hair or her lipstick (or in this particular case her dress) which helps people to remember her red associated artist name.
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The notion of looking is explored heavily in Casper through mirrors, from even the first shots of the video before the music has even begun she is looking at herself in car mirrors. Once in the hotel room she looks at herself or just sits in front of the mirrors in her room and bathroom and her reflection in the windows numerous time, taking up about a third of the shots. Voyeuristic treatment of the female body is used throughout the piece, through both her costume, a tight red dress which shows cleavage and a short white nightie, to the way she acts in them such as pushing her chest up in front of a mirror and moving and crawling sensuously while in the nightie. Both men in the piece seem to look over her body some point, as if they are appraising it.
6.There are often intertextual references.
At the beginning of the piece, before the song begins, the artist flicks through the radio and two different songs come on for a brief few seconds, both of which are intertextual references. In this case the referenced songs are other pieces by the artist which help create an awareness for her other songs from the start.
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
We can see examples of illustrative images later in the piece as when she sings that 'I could be sleeping by your side' we see her slowly drift off to sleep and wake up with him in the room. Images of her sighing and clutching at the curtains in despair are amplifying the idea in the lyrics that she is in despair over man and the whole video shows a part attempted and part imaginary encounter with him. The final lyrics which are also the first lyrics of the song 'there was one and there were two and then I probably lost the count' summarises what is to happen and then has happened in the piece, saying about how, to her, there were two men in the room and then she knocked herself out.
3. There is a relationship between music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
The speed of the editing and number of shots in particular places in the piece changes depending on the speed of the music, having lots of fast shots were the music speeds up and very few, slow shots were the music slows down, ending in the longest shot of the piece at the end where the music is at its slowest . The movements on screen often happen to the beat of the music, in some cases taking the place of diegetic music such as a drum beat for a door slamming and the clash of a cymbal for a vase breaking. The tone and atmosphere created by the music seems for me to be laid-back with a touch of glamour, shown perfectly in the images through the simple hotel room with a woman dressed as a pop star.
4. The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs that recur across their work
Lots of close ups are used throughout the piece and during most of it only the artist is on screen in order to help create her star image, her artist name is also written along with the title of the music video so that more people will see and remember her name. A common motif in her most recent video is the colour red, whether this be in her hair or her lipstick (or in this particular case her dress) which helps people to remember her red associated artist name.
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The notion of looking is explored heavily in Casper through mirrors, from even the first shots of the video before the music has even begun she is looking at herself in car mirrors. Once in the hotel room she looks at herself or just sits in front of the mirrors in her room and bathroom and her reflection in the windows numerous time, taking up about a third of the shots. Voyeuristic treatment of the female body is used throughout the piece, through both her costume, a tight red dress which shows cleavage and a short white nightie, to the way she acts in them such as pushing her chest up in front of a mirror and moving and crawling sensuously while in the nightie. Both men in the piece seem to look over her body some point, as if they are appraising it.
6.There are often intertextual references.
At the beginning of the piece, before the song begins, the artist flicks through the radio and two different songs come on for a brief few seconds, both of which are intertextual references. In this case the referenced songs are other pieces by the artist which help create an awareness for her other songs from the start.
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