Sunday, 17 January 2010
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
One Day Lip-Sync Project
For this Project we had a Abba song chosen for us and we had to shoot and edit a lip sync video.We had to mime the Abba song and then place the audio on top when editing in final cut pro.
Purpose of Music Videos
In 1967 in February The Beatles took 2 days to film one the first ever real music videos in a surrey field to promote there new single "strawberry Fields" this video was a huge hit and made other artists and bands want to create there own music videos, in addition to this the Beatles also recorded a performance as live and it was broadcasted on TV, this arguably was one of the main reasons the Beatles where so famous and well liked because they started music video industry.And in the 1970's most big name artists were making pop promos with bands such as Queen, Abba and the Jackson 5 all making music videos,but the demand increased dramatically for artists to make music videos because of top of the pops , the BBC show was a phenomenon and soon it was essential for very top pop group to get onto the show, the TV show gave viewers a real taste for a visual representation of there favorite artists , and it became essential for most artists to have a certain unique style or image to go with there music.It was in the 1980's though when music videos really began to take-off with the launch of MTV in 1981,because now there was a real need to create music videos in order to ensure your music was "heard" globally.Although initially however it was generally British acts that were creating the videos for broadcast.And this was why there was a massive "Brit Invasion" into US charts in the 1980's .This showed how essential music videos were now to bands and artists.
I am going to talk about how music videos promote the band. From the 1960’s when music videos were first really experimented with ,music videos have become more and more a regular occurrence with almost every signed band now having a music video to go with there songs. Music videos are excellent for promoting the band because they give a visual representation of the band .This meant that massive bands like the Beatles didn’t have to appear live to perform the track and gave more opportunity for the track to be “heard” , this meant that the appeal of bands like the Beatles grew further. Music videos provide a great way to promote a artist or track as they provide a visual representation of around three to four tracks from an album.
Music videos are also used for extension of income. Music videos help to keep the artist or band in the public eye for a few months after the release of their album leaving them in the public eye for as long as possible .This means the artist/band will continue to rack up sales of their album for months after its release. This helps recoup the production cost of recording the music originally, but the real money spinner is extension of outlets, because technology has been gradually progressing since the 1960’s and it is now a massive influence on the music industry. Since Music videos entered television on stations such as MTV,VH1,Kerrang and Hits etc Music videos started to have a big impact on music artists popularity and a lot of work went into music videos examples of this were videos like Michael Jacksons Thriller which is arguably one of the most popular music videos of all time ,people not only were impressed by the short story but also the dance choreography behind the video ,this set a bench mark for artists and many artists now have particular dance moves to their music videos.In the early 2000's a band called the Gorillazs pushed the boundaries even further by creating a strong visual representation of themselves in the form of animated characters ,these made the band unique and there music videos were extremely good with funny twists and brilliantly created animated characters,the first thing that comes to mind when you talk about the gorillazs is there animated characters in there music videos this made them a very successful band .This shows the importance of music videos . These Stations all show music videos and have to pay to get the rights to show them. Also the internet will continue to show the artists music videos for months on sites such Vodpod and Video cure and music videos will be available to watch whenever you please on sites like YouTube .And you can also collect even more income from downloads of the Internet. The Internet is growing by the day and now people prefer to sit at home and buy and download songs off the Internet rather than go and buy there CD’s from high streets. Devices such as ipods ,mobile phones,blackberry's and mp3s are bought in there billions and people are listening to music on there phones ,ipods etc constantly, this however has seen the fall of well renowned TV shows such as Top of the tops to fold .This is mainly because of websites , such as YouTube because they had all of the most popular music videos just a click away and these music videos would get millions of views,in particular the most famous ones , and therefore people shunned there TV's for there computers and internet became the main source to listen and view music videos and songs. A really good example of how popular Music videos are on YouTube is the recent example of Eminem's new Music video for his track :"Not Afraid" which has had a massive 17 million views in under a week and a half of its release on the YouTube music video channel vevo.This shows the extreme popularity of Music videos on the web and shows the massive exposure the artist gets from this.
Music videos links to Film/Tv programmes (synergy) are also a important purpose for music videos.Music made by a artist or band that is specially made for a film, a good example of this is in the film Charlie's angels , where clips from Charlie's angles where included in destiny's child's music video this helped promote both the band and the film as every time the film was watched the song was being played and the popularity of the song grew, and even bigger example of this is the James bond films which where widely renowned as brilliant films and every single one of the movies had a single released from the film , and the music video would have clips of the film in it as it was specially made for the film, examples of this are gold finger and live and let die.The artist could then include clips of the film in there music video.This is another purpose for music videos because when people think about the film they think about there song as well.The artist could also get there music video on unsigned act shows such as x-factor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k
Contemporary Music Video Research
And the night is aching
Two lovers lie with no sheets on their bed
And the day is breaking
This shows the strong link between the visuals and the lyrics as in the visuals at this point a man is emerging from the sea at the break of dawn. The song is about two intimate lovers and visuals as you will see in the video below definitely portrays this. The chorus talks about a “electrical storm” and at the end if the video this is visually represented by a firework display in the night sky. The music is typical to U2’s style ,its sought of a light rock type of music. With the music mainly consisting of light drumming and strumming with the drums and guitar. The calming music fits in well with the visuals as you get the calm effect in the video with the sparkling sea and gentle lovers. The visuals in the music video don‘t represent the normal stereotypical rock band music video but at one point the band is shown playing which is very much stereotypical to rock band music videos. There is no real obvious use of intertextuality in the video although you could say that the visuals are very romantic based and the lyrics are very much about two lovers. I would say the video is very much performance and narrative based as the video tells the story of two lovers,with the director relying on the actors (the male actor was the drummer of U2)to intimately express there feelings and use strong facial expressions this was done excellently. The narrative is on showed in the visuals of the music video when the band is playing and when Bono(U2’s lead singer)is on the train. The promo doesn’t necessarily promote the band as they rarely make a appearance but the visuals are so fantastic that when you hear the song it makes you think of the music video. Quote about music video from fan:i get myself lost in time every time i hear this song , it reminds me a few years ago when i used to be so happy , life was so easy , i was a teen at that time , wow , what a gus song they have come with on that album , i have no words 2 describe it
I feel the intended audience for this music video is teens upwards. Although I feel more for the adult audience as the video and song is very relaxing and the songs lyrics have a deep meaning. And the visuals are also very sexual so not really suitable for younger kids. The song also may seem to “boring” for some of the younger audience.
"Come to Daddy" -Aphex Twin
The excellent cinematography in this music video was done by Simon Chaudoir. The mise-on-scene is interesting with the filming taking place on a rundown estate with a big car park. There is a lot of rubbish and debris hanging about and there was a particular focus on a TV on the floor were the “daddy” if you like of these weird aphex twin faced dwarfs appears, the actors didn‘t have any facial expressions as they were wearing aphex twin faced masks ,and the granny actor performed her role well as the innocent scared old lady. The video starts off with a innocent looking granny walking her dog but when the music picks up the TV on the rubbish pile turns on and strange children with the face of aphex twin pick it up and start running around creating chaos. The cinematography is this video is excellent with panning shots of large buildings and shots of the camera following the apex twin dwarfs in the ally ways the lighting was not very complex as the filming was done in the day but some of the shades of tone and light on people's faces especially on the granny and her dog in the film opening. There were a variety of shots in this video including LS’s ,panning shots and CU’s.There were some very interesting visual effects, in particular the “daddy” creature squirming out of the TV and then the dwarf children also looked extremely sinister. The lyrics were few and far between in this music video but were fairly appropriate in comparison to the goings on for example in the video when the dwarf children come and take the TV with the creature on the Lyrics are: “come to daddy” and also the aphex twin shouts out “I want your soul” during the music video which relates to the children being somewhat abusive the people and environment around them. There was some relation between the music and the visuals, the music was sought of electronic and the fast pace of the music matched the visuals when the children were running around creating chaos. There is use of intertextuality with the horror in this music video. The horror is contemporary as it relates to the use of children in horror movies, which is being used more and more recently. The visuals don’t match the stereotypical electronic music video which normally involves people raving in clubs with flashing lights in that respect the visuals are very unusual as this comment from a you tube user suggests:
“cross dressing midgets is original” .
The video is very much concept based with superb visuals and no real narrative as there was no real story to the music video ,it was mildly performance based but the actors did not express themselves much and mainly just carried out actions. The promo promotes the artist because his face is on the children and is on the creature at the end as well, this makes the people watching wonder who he is and will want to by more of his music if they like this video. Comments about the video from you tube :
Music Video Director Research
This table of Corbijn's Music video's was from the website-http://www.mvdbase.com/tech.php?last=Corbijn&first=Anton
Quotes about Corbijn's work:
Amazon comments:
"This is a great representation of Anton Corbijn's work. The director's series has long been on my list of dvds to get round to buying and i'm glad I started with this. There is a wide selection of music videos here, though perhaps rather too many Depeche Mode promos for my liking [ not a fan!]. The commentaries are very interesting"
"But his best work is available elsewhere: Namely on U2 and Depeche Mode singles collections."
"How could this DVD not include the wonderfully inventive and moving Please by U2, and the rich and stylish In Your Room by dM??"
YouTube comments:
"One U2 's best songs/video EVER... "
"Man, i love it <3> "
"I'm blown away by it all. Totally."
These comments show how respected Anton Corbijn is as a director ,the comments also show how people appreciate his work as "Rich and Stylish" this these comments are true to his work as corbijn works hard to make his videos cinematic and stylish to look at.The same comment also explains how he is "Inventive"every successful music video director has to have good innovation and the fact that his work is described as inventive shows this.
Some of Corbijn's work: