Hello there and welcome to my A2 media blog The brief for the A2 course is: to form a group of two/three and produce a music video as the main product along with two ancillary texts: a digipak cover for the music video and a magazine advert for the digipak. We will also need to do research for the band we choose to do along with music videos from the same genre. We also need to research the typical codes and conventions for a music video. Feel free to leave any feedback on any of my posts Thanks
Bullet for my Valentine's music video for "Waking the Demon" is based on the narrative of a teenage metal fan (signified by wearing metal band t-shirts and locker filled with metal band posters) being bullied at school by the typical high school jocks. The jocks bully the metal fan by beating him and pouring milkshake on him. Throughout the music video there is cross cutting to a calender in which the teenage metal fan is counting down the days crossing them off. It gets to the date saying "full moon" and he circles it in red ink. (to signify blood) He then goes to the woods were the jock leader is with his girlfriend and gets the jock to chase him through the woods. The teenager then falls to the ground and there is a cut shot to the full moon. The teenager turns into a werewolf using special effects and attacks the jock leader, off camera. We then see the next day at school with the process starting again of the teenager getting bullied and crossing off the next day. There is a poster on the wall looking for the missing jock.
The lyrical meaning of the song is revenge. Matt Tuck, lead singer and guitarist, said:
"Waking the Demon is about finding someone's inner demon. Most of us in the band got pushed around in school so the song is about getting tormented, day in and day out for years, and then one day - 'snap!' - fight back!"
As well as the narrative side of the music video it also has a performance side in which the band play in a very dark wood location, only lit up by moonlight which links to the narrative. The dark shots are what you would expect for a typical music video for this genre. The performance side of the video features the frontman Matt Tuck lip syncing along with bass player Jason Jameslip syncing the screaming parts. The whole band also play their instruments for the performance side of the music video.
Shot of the whole band
As you can see here the band are all playing. However the focus is not completley on the frontman which would be typical of a music video. For this video they feature the whole band in it alot more than a typical one because of the genre of the music, it's not just the frontman playing it's the whole band so they want to show it.
The video uses lots of cross cutting throughout the music video. The man cross cutting is between the narrative of the teenager getting bullied with the days going by and getting crossed off one by one on the calendar. Cross cutting is also used between the narrative of the video with the performance side, so footage of the band performing to the camera.
Typical of this genre the music video contains the band headbanging in the performance shots which definatley would not be seen on a typical pop video. Instead of dancing which would be typical of the pop/dance genre the metal genre uses the headbang so it can be identified quickly when switching channels fast along with the dark scenes.
Special effects are used in the music video for the part when the teenager changes from human to the werewolf infront of the highschool jock in the wood scene. With digitisation it has become more available to use special effects in music videos without the budget being really high.The video is quite violent with the teenager getting beaten up and bullied along with the horror side of the werewolf evolving which is typical of this genre. However there is some exceptions to the pop genre such as Michael Jackson's thriller which uses the werewolf and the whole point of him turning into one, that example challenges the typical codes and conventions by using the werewolf etc.
The shots are fairly short in the music video because they need to appeal to the target audience and they would get bored if the shots are longer than a couple of seconds each. Lots of shot variation is also used to be attractive to the audience and not make them bored. If the shots are short and lots of them when people are changing channels they can quickly see what it is.
A-ha's music video for "Take on me" was at the time a fairly new thing to bring to music video's. For the music video they used a technique called rotoscoping in which animators draw over real time frames, frame by frame to give a smooth feel to it. Much like this image above. Approximatley 3,000 frames were rotoscoped and it took 16 weeks to finish the whole music video. The music video was awarded with "Best Special Effects" and "Best Concept video" to name two of the six awards it won.
Rotoscoped hand coming out of the comic book
"Take on me" is a narrative music video as it follows the story of a girl reading a comic book in a cafe when one of the images winks at her, a hand comes out of the comic book and drags her into it. Inside the comic book rotoscoping is used and it all has a sketch type look to it, the image is black and white to show that it is a different location to the cafe. The frontman and the girl reading the comic book look around the comic book "world" until the waiter in the cafe crumples up the comic book causing the bikers from within the comic book to enter again and attack the too. The frontman helps the girl escape from the comic book. When she looks at the book again she sees him lying on the floor looking dead, however he escapes from the book too to end the music video.
The music video also has aspects of a performance video too with the frontman Morten Harketusing lip-sync throughout the music video but also by the fact he dances too. The dancing is very typical of the genre that the song is which means the music video uses the typical codes and conventions for it's genre. The frontman theory is also used by the fact he is one of the main characters and the other band members are only in it for short periods.
They also play their instruments in the music video to show they know what they are doing and to show that they made the music and didn't just use a computer to make it. It's also like a little performance to give it some verisimilitude. They also use colour on the band shots to connote they are not within the narrative but apart sort of like cross cutting so people don't get confused and think they are within the narrative. By changing the colours it helps connote that.
The audience for the music video is15-24 due to the fast takes and special effects which appeal to the younger audience more. They use the fast takes so the audience doesn't get bored. However they do have long takes also because it's like a short film and they take some aspects of film into the music video.
Cross cutting is used in the music video for the scenes when the woman leaves the cafe and the waiter is annoyed because she thinks she has run off. It is also used when the bikers attack the frontman and the woman is reading it in her room from the comic book. It's used so you can see whats happening in two scenes at the same time and so the audience don't get bored.
Unfortunatley they removed embedding access from the A-ha official Youtube page but I embedded another version however it does have subtitles at the bottom and the image is reversed but it's not too much of a problem.
Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" is a concept music video. The music video is very simple and only has five shots however it has won awards for "Best Video of the Year" and "Breakthrough Video" showing simplicity is the answer. Basically the music video consists of frontman Jay Kaydancing and performing the song to the camera by lip syncing.
The video only contains 5 shots and therefore with it being a 4 min long song the clips are very long. This music video challenges the codes and conventions of a typical music video because it does not have very fast takes and hundreds of shots, it has shots lasting a minute and only 5 in total however with the awards it has won, it definatley works for the audience!
The music video is clever because of the special effects it uses within it. The room appears to stay still whilst the floor appears to move and allows Jay Kay to dance around the room with a sort of treadmill effect. Special effects are also used when it transitions to the next shot (not very often). The camera tilts up or down for a few seconds and then returns to a central point before the next shot/location is on screen.
The whole band do appear in the music video however only for about 20 seconds, therefore this music video takes another typical code and convention of a music video by focusing pretty much entirely on the frontman. Jay Kay is in everyshot and for about 95% of the music video whilst the other band members are in it for only 1 shot. Therefore it does have some typical codes and conventions of a typical music video.
There are very short clips of cockroaches and crows flying as a bit to fill in when it changes to another scene. It's sort of a cross cut in between 2 scenes only lasting a second or 2.The dancing is typical for the genre of the song, therefore yet again it does take aspects of a typical music video and applies to the codes and conventions of a music video within that genre.
Lip-syncing and dancing are the major parts for this music video. The dance has been choreographed perfectly and with the shots being very long it would have taken a long time to get the dancing right in one take. Lip-syncing is used for the performance side of the music video for verisimilitude. The planning for this music video would be vast so if we wanted to do anything like this it would take weeks to plan all the choreography and have the long takes.
Muse's Knights of Cydonia video is a narrative music video as the entirety is based on a story of a man named "The man with no name" (a clear reference to Clint Eastwood's character in the "Man with no Name" films.)practicing his fighting skills and going to the western town of Cydonia. He faces off with the sheriff and ends up saving the hot blonde woman. The music video is basically just a short spaghetti western film!
The holographic version of the band performing in a bar
The music video contains performance footage of the band throughout both in the flesh but also with a futuristic twist. They obviously took influence from the Star Wars franchise and used holographic images for parts of the music video for when the band is performing, a simple yet interesting effect used in editing software.
One example of multi-layering in the video
Multi-layering is used on many occassions throughout the music video, it has been used to show the band performing whilst having the story play underneath it for effect. It is useful because they can show more shots and shot variation. It also appeals to the audience because it is more interesting than just one long shot.
The male gaze aspect in the video
The attractive woman is being cast for this role to be used for the male gaze. Therefore this video will appeal to the male audience due to her good looks and appeal. This aspect is made even stronger when they have a sex scene within the music video to show off her curves and increase the "male gaze level" to attract even more.
Here is one of the reference examples. You can tell it has taken inspiration from "The Matrix"with the over exaggerated "kung fu" type pose which is used alot in the Matrix trilogy. Also this shot takes reference from Sergio Leone's classic western "The Good The Bad and The Ugly"with the font of the text that is on the screen.
Blonde woman "mouthing" the lyrics after sung by band
The music video has lip-syncing by the band and using there instruments but it also has the actors within the narrative side of the music video "mouthing" out the lyrics. It is not lip syncing because they mouth the lyrics slightly after they have been sung, they are used like a script for the actors to read. ‘You and I must fight for out rights’ is sung by the band then a second after the blonde female says it to the audience within the narrative of the story when she is about to be hung. (at about 4:59 in the video)
3 shots in 1
Several effects have been used in the music video, such as the "holographic effect" and the gun firing a laser beam. They also use effects such as blending 2 or even 3 shots into one (like the one to the right) to make 1 shot alot more interesting. We will be able to do this on the editing software we use at A2 level. (Final Cut Express)
Here is the laser gun, reference to Star Wars again?!
Here you can see the director Joseph Kahn went down with a "futuristic" feel to the old western type music video by adding little details such as this to bring it to the future. Added with things such as the robot, the sheriff's car and the "man with no name's" motorcross bike.
Joseph Kahn uses very simple and small details which are very effective like the part at about 3:09 when the man gets pushed down the stairs by the "man with no name" and it replicates the sound when guitarist Matt Bellamy slides his hand down the guitar.
The bedroom scene
Cross cutting is used in the music video when the "man with no name" enters the bar scene and meets the blonde woman. It cross cuts between the bedroom scene and the bar scene to have two sequences play at the same time to appeal to the audience, the sex scene part of the music video also appeals to the audience. However the full version of the bedroom scene was removed from the official video for obvious reasons.
The futuristic sheriff
The audience for the music video is 15-24 and mainly male due to the male gaze aspect of the video. The bedroom scene also appeals to the male audience and the age range. However if they chose to keep the sex scene in the official music video obviously the age range would go up slightly.
And finally here is a reference to old western films with the typical "title" screen shown before and after to give it the codes and conventions of a typical western. A very small detail yet it is needed and works.
Funny Fact: When Muse play this song live they also play a little intro to the song which is from the famous western film "Once upon a time in the west". They play "The Man with the Harmonica" which is from the film and the Bass player of Muse; Chris Wolstenholme plays the harmonica part. Ennio Morricone composed the song. (he also composed the music for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). Here is a clip of Muse's version of the Ennio Morricone classic before playing Knights of Cydonia.
Here is a list of all the movie references used in the music video. Sourced from Musewiki
Star Wars
The Good the Bad The Ugly
The Matrix
Batman
Planet of the Apes
Mad Max
Blade Runner
Lone Ranger
Maverick
Once Upon a Time in China
Battlestar Galactica
Five Deadly Venoms
Kung Fu
The Searchers
Westworld
Heavy Metal
Here is the music video for Knights of Cydonia. Unfortunatley they have removed the rights to embed this video so I can only provide the link to Youtube for you to watch it. Sorry about that!
Here is a link to the "Behind the Scenes of Knights of Cydonia" which is very useful to get the feel of all the ideas that they brought together for the music video and some of the references they adapted into it. It also has some details on why they chose the costumes etc and is useful for us to watch as we will be doing a similar thing in our coursework.
Here is a live version of Knight's of Cydonia played at the recently built (at the time) Wembley Stadium.
The song below inspired Knights of Cydonia, mainly due to the fact that George Bellamy (Father of Matt Bellamy, Frontman and guitarist of Muse) was in the band that made it, listen to it to hear how similar they sound!
Sum 41's "In Too Deep" music video has performance aspects (see image to right) in it mixed with a comedic narrative (which I will explain later). The video is a parody of the diving competition which is in the film Back to School. The band face very stereotypical highschool "jocks" whom are very muscular and wearing tight speedos. The teams go head to head performing the best dives off a huge diving board competing for the best score.
Stereotypical high school "jocks" (muscular in tight speedos)
Because of it being a parody the band members all dive in some sort of comedic effect whilst their oppositions do almost perfect dives.That is the main story/narrative of the music video however the narrative footage cross cuts to the performance side of the music video in which the band lip-sync and play their instruments infront of a crowd.
Binary opposites of the stereotyped "jocks"
The final dive is by the drummer Steve Joczwhom does a ridiculous yet entertaining dive to finish off the video and get a perfect score so their team beat the "jocks".
Intertextual reference to Slash in "Estranged"
When Dave Baksh plays the guitar solo in this song, it is a clear intertextual reference to the Gun's N Roses classic music video Estranged in which Slash does the same and rises out of the water playing a guitar solo. If the audience has not seen the "GnR" music video they will not pick up the preffered reading (Stuart Halls theory) for the reference.
Iron Maiden T-shirt
The audience for the music video is 15-24 because of the fairly childish humour within the music video with the over the top dives etc. The fact that there is an audience within the music video (seen in the image to the right) shows clear evidence of what the audience is. For an audience of 15-24 you would expect there to be very fast takes however quite alot of the shots are on screen for a few seconds especially when people are diving, this challenges the codes and conventions for a music video within that audience range.
Male Gaze aspect
There are both male and female gaze aspects within this music video to make sure it appeals to both male and female so that the audience is larger. The male gaze aspect can be seen to the image on the left whilst the female gaze is used with the muscular, tanned jocks on the diving team to appeal to the female audience.
All ages entered the competition and got into the video
Feeder's cult classic music video for "Just a Day" falls into the "performance" category. This music video is based on fans lip-syncing to the track in their bedroom or frontroom on a little camcorder. The idea came out from the band sending out a competition for fans to send in unedited video footage of them dancing, playing instruments and/or lip syncing to the camera and the director would choose the best ones to add to the music video. Even when the people who entered got told they were in it they could not tell anyone and it had to be kept secret!
Lip-syncing to the camera
This video demonstrates how digitisation has affected the world, 20 years ago people wouldn't be able to film themselves in their own home with a video camera as camcorders costs thousands that long ago, also they would not be able to send the video clip as easily as just an email is today. It shows that just with amateur footage a professional video for a professional band can be created and even have a cult following.
Playing along with instruments!
The target audience for the music video is 15-24 due to the majority of the ages within the footage are in that age range, the genre of the music is listened to within that age range too which would attrack them and at the time is was released the genre was more popular.
Most importantly the fan footage's sound is played over the top which is not typical of a music video and goes challenges the codes and conventions of music videos. Many fans were not happy with this choice as you can hear fans poor singing over the top of the track and they think it ruins the song/video. However it does add verisimilitude to the music video and the majority are glad they kept the original sound of the clips in because of it challenging the codes and conventions and not being the same as every other music video, they wanted it to stand out which it does!
Iron Maiden's "Can I Play With Madness" music video is under the "narrative" section of Goodwin's theory. The story is based on an Art teacher who is teaching his class how to draw an abbey in which they are located. One student draws a picture of "Eddie" (Iron Maiden's famous mascot) instead of drawing the Abbey. The art teacher takes the drawing and walks off, however he falls down a hole and discovers a lab underground were he finds a CGI version of Eddie inside a fridge towards the end. There is a performance side to the music video too though, while the art teacher is in the lab he watches TV with the band performing live on it.
Here is the student drawing Eddie
At the start with the Abbey location sequence the shots go on for a long time, if the music video is targetted at youngsters (of the 21st century) they would get bored very fast. However the music video was made in the late 80's and therefore the attention span was longer for a youngster and therefore the music video could be aimed at them. Also with Heavy metal being more "acceptable" in the 80's there was a wider audience than today.
The CGI Eddie above the Abbey
When the teacher is looking over the shoulders of the students the camera is very low angle, this is used to show his dominance and power over the students, it is made more clear by a girl looking scared when he looks over her shoulder.
CGI Eddie in the fridge
CGI or Computer Generated Imagery is used on several occasions in this music videomainly because the 80's marked the start of CGI and being used in the music video is very effective. It has been used to add horror aspects to the music video, because Eddie is seen as an icon for gore/horror in the ways he is used on album covers.
Here is the way they used the band performing live on a TV within the music video. The band doesn't appear in person in the music video or lip-sync to the camera they are just seen on a recording on the TV, it's a very simple yet clever thing to do and will not be hard for us to do in our music videos.
The "Pork and Beans" music video is completley unique. The music videos is all of footage that was made famous on Youtube. The video basically sums up Digitisation and shows how successful something on the internet can become, they can get onto bands music videos! The music video is a concept video due to it being completley random and getting very famous yet irrelevant videos from the biggest video sharing website of all time. The music video is a "celebration of the creativity" says Matthew Cullen the music video's director.
Because it is a concept music video there is no real story or structure however the video does have lip syncing in it so it has aspects of being a performance video however it is heavily under the concept route.
The target audience is 15-24 due to Youtube being a fairly recent phenomenon the older generation do not use it as often and would not understand the prefered reading (Stuart Hall's theory). Also if the person had not seen the original videos on Youtube they would not pick up the preferred reading of the music video.
Here is one of the many, very famous video clips that they took inspiration from in the Pork and Beans music video
Here you can see the replicate the room from the famous "guitar" video and use it in their music video
Here is another famous Youtube video which Weezer took inspiration from
As you can see they captured the same aspect as it but made it their own. (even using the same lab coats as the original!)
Finally they used this famous video from Youtube and replicated it
They even got in contact with the man who made the original video and asked him to be in their music video, he agreeded and they filmed in the same place except lip-syncing Pork and Beans instead. Genius.
