We will be producing a music video that is to be around three to four minutes in length. The video will be shot in a first person perspective, to give the viewer the sense that they are in the video. As for actually narrative it will be that there is a someone wandering around a party (first person) but every so often they will catch a glimpse of the band performing. The cuts of the band and performance will be fast paced and quick to keep up with the song, towards the end of the video the first person will move outside look at the sky and the video will fade out in a white glow.
Treatment:
First Person Shot (FPS)- As mentioned in the synopsis the entire music video will be shot in first person to give the viewer a sense that they are at a party, the FPS will walk around the party gathering drinks and getting into trouble we shall try and fit all the conventions of a party in the music video to make it appear more realistic.
Crowd- The crowd will also be through first person, but the FPS will join in with the crowd and jump around, all the crowd members will be seen doing crazy things such as jumping down stairs and all sorts. We may also have the aid of disco lights to give the video a more authentic feel
Band/Performance- Once again this section will be filmed in FPS however the FPS may move in on the band to get some interesting close ups and down the neck guitar shots, otherwise the video may become a little boring. The bands clothing will be that of a Punk style to fit in with the codes and conventions of the genre this music video is being made for.
Here is the final evaluation of my music video project; I shall go through all the procedures, roles and tasks within the process of creating this final video. The video took two days in total to shoot and a good three days editing with a little bit of extra time here and there to get the final Re-Edit of the video.
Firstly lets talk about inspiration for the song and video, well it started when the group where discussing lyrics we knew we wanted a punk/metal feel to the song however didn’t want a cliché lyrical theme. We began brainstorming and eventually came out with something to do with the Hiroshima Bombing. Once we had our theme we did some research until finally finding the wikipedia article about Big Stink an aeroplane which was sent to take photographs of the Hiroshima attacks, after printing the pages the group discussed lyrics however it wasn’t particularly successful so we left it until we had a solid bakcing track of music. During that night Jack created a drum track using the programme Beat craft, as well as a guitar part to go with it, me and Jack then began to debate the lyrics until coming to a final set. Jack then sent me the backing track and I fitted lyrics to it after doing this I sent it back to Jack and also Matt to have their approval on the way I presented the lyrics they where happy so the next day we where set to record.
On the next day Jack taught Matt his bass part and we headed to the studio to record our song, it all went very smoothly and suprising didn’t take too long, it was after this that we needed a good strong idea as to what was going to happen within the video, we drew inspiration from videos such as Enter Shikari-Sorry Your Not A Winner and Cancer Bats-Hail Destroyer just to name a few. Both of these videos are heavily performance based which was our initial idea. It was then set that we where going to do a performance in Jacks Nan’s garage and we began the storyboards and ideas, such as camera angles, shot type and various other aspects. Although the following day bought much stress down onto the group as the garage plan fell through, we desperately needed a back up plan but there wasn’t one. Jack then enlightened me and Matt with the idea of his friend’s house and how we could do a similar performance there this began the basis of our video. After speaking to tutors and going through pitches this idea seemed solid until it was discovered that me and Matt would not be able to get to the location as it was in Colchester and we where busy on the only night that the crowd could get in. Once again we hit another downfall but picked ourselves up soon again after deciding to add a narrative into the performance all was not lost, Me and Jack sat at a table through ideas at each other and scribbling them down on paper while Matt created a storyboard, here is where the final idea came in we would have a narrative of Jack filming at the party so we still had a good crowd concept in the video and then we would all meet up to do the performance sections of the video at Jacks house the following week.
Now we began to delegate roles Jack would be head of camerawork I would dream up the concepts for editing and Matt would do the majority of pre-production, this took all the stress away from us and we finally knew what we where doing.
It came to the first night of filming Friday night where Jack was going to film the narrative clips at the party, this all went very well however the camera was left on automatic giving a lot of fast moving shots a blurry hue, another slight disappointment was the crowd only around six people turned up however I think this gave the video a more rough underground feel which was the sort of thing we where aiming for a rough, raw and ready punk style video.
Then came the weekend where we all made arrangements to meet at Jacks house on Monday, here we filmed all the performance aspects of the video, we recorded us the band performing the sound from a wide range of angles we experimented here with lighting capturing some interesting lens flares and good shadow shots, the shots where also varying with down the neck guitar shots, extreme close ups, tracking all sorts where used to get a ensure the video was to a high standard.
Once I got home that evening I began to think more closely toward the post-production, I came up with the idea of making the colours black and white upon the performance and even came up with the plan of super imposing the Hiroshima videos over the top of us performing, these two editing techniques proved worthy in the later stages of post-production.
Our next day was a break where we all had a chat about the post-production ready for editing the next day. During the next day of cause the editing began on final cut pro, we began by fitting all of the party footage together, it seemed to flow well but we needed to decide on edit points for the performance sections in the video. The performance parts came whenever the character in the narrative left the room, the whole narrative was filmed through a first person perspective making the audience feel they are part of the video. Each performance shot was very quick paced to keep up with the timing in the song it’s a fast song therefore it requires fast edits. When all the performance sections where added they seemed too colourful compared to the narrative so we began to desaturate the performance clips one by one so they became black and white. After adding a few fades and extra audio effects the video was completed or so we though.
The editing took a good few days but soon enough it was time for evaluation, after gaining some feedback from the group it was clear we need to add more to more video the lip sync and instrument syncing was perfect however the video lack just that little bit extra, it was here where we finally decided to super impose the Hiroshima videos upon the performance, this came out tremendously but left the performance slightly in shadow. I suggested that we add a small amount of colour to the performance sections and possible make the narrative a little more muddy to make the video flow in a more orderly fashion. Once this was completed we where set and extremely happy with the finished Re-edit of our video.
So there you have it that is how the video was created but how about things we could have change what we where happy with these are all questions that need to be answered, and now I shall answer them
Things I am personally happy with would be the overall cinematography and mise-en-scene all the locations look considerable punk/ metal they have a nice rugged edge once the effects are applied and costume all the crowd really look like the target audience would and us the band generally look like we mean business in the way we play our music with aggression and a raw style. This is a silly point but I was happy with my personal costume I felt I portrayed an extreme punk feel with the Mohawk and overall costume, I decided I should dress up as I am the front man of the band pressing a lot of attention upon me. The shots used for performance are another thing I am very pleased about as they continuously vary between fixed and tracking shots giving the video a smooth quick paced continuity and also makes sure it flows back into narrative in an orderly fashion rather than being all very picky. As a group I was very happy there was a fantastic input from all the team members and we all had a good shot at editing and filming however in the future I would perhaps like to be more engaged in the filming side of the production, I did film a lot of performance shots however I feel the work load should have been spread as Jack was left to do the entire party sequence. Although without my shot list Jack may have been slightly stuck so I guess in some way I did input into the filming of the party sequence.
What am I not so happy with well I suppose mostly the quality, due to the camera being left on automatic a lot of shots where blurred and also the night made some clip extremely dark even on indoor shots, in the future I would probably consider shooting day for night and if I was shooting at night I would use additional lighting to give the shots more depth. Also the crowd turn out was abit of a let down in future I will make sure things are well and truly sorted before making a moving and leaving it in the hands of others perhaps a list of who is actually turning up would be an appropriate idea. Experimentation would also be a big part if I was to recreate this video I would use a variety of lens to see what kind of shots could be achieved as appose to leaving it all the basic camera lens.
Big Stink overall for me was a huge success the audience seem to have enjoyed watching and I certainly enjoyed making and working in a group of other like minded individuals, I believe our similar taste in music helped the video as we already knew what we wanted as we had all seem videos from our favourite bands before and knew exactly what we wanted. Compared to real pop promos I think our video is rather convincing it holds all the conventions of a punk video and very similar shots, but our narrative gave the video some kind of originally allowing it to stand out from ordinary performance based videos. Big Stink was a nice concept and a good overall project I am happy with the finished product and have learnt that it is better to discuss things in a groups rather than going at it alone, along with this I have learned to open my ears and listen to others ideas more closely, before the project I was rather close minded however this projected allowed me to open up and listen to others, these skills have left me very happy as with my other group members the video would not be what it is. Big Stink where certainly very enjoyable for all of us and has given me a good incite into working in a media industry, overall I am proud of my input to the video, Big Stink and generally how everything has turned out .
Introduction- In this essay I shall be talking about the interactive media of today and how it is used. Firstly what is interactive media, well interactive media is a form of media which can be interacted with for example the red button on your television, or user generated media all of these platforms, uses, and technologies will be explained thoroughly in this essay
Platforms- A platform is simply a stage for interactive media to be placed on or within over the many years platforms for media have grown considerably where there was once only one or two platforms there are now tons all of which give us access to varying kinds of interactive media text.
Possibly the biggest platform at present is the World Wide Web, the Web has proved itself extremely popular with the youth of today and is also reaching older generations aswell, quite simply the internet is a fantastic tool for the media industry. Most anything can be viewed on the Web from video hosting sites to catch up TV players the Web is fantastic and has allowed many people to become famous through such video virals which I shall come to later.
Another popular platform is email attachments which can also be tied in with the Internet as without it email would not exist. An email attachment is often a web link or file which when clicked opens on a website or computer video player for example windows media player. Email attachments are sent from one person to another abit like an online text message.
DVD’s are in a disc format but are now becoming a dying platform for media, the reason their popularity is on the decrease is because of the sale of Blu-rays, blu-ray is to a higher quality than DVD and is now beginning to take over the market, however despite this the two are basically the same thing they usually feature a film along with a menu containing extras such as director interviews and behind the scenes, DVDs are normally played on a television but can also be played on a computer.
The next platform I wish to talk about is CD ROM a CD ROM normally contains educational information and fun interactive games usually to be used in schools to get others educated in a more exciting and memorable form, a CD ROM is played on a computer as it is in a disc format.
Now we are moving on to a considerably smaller platform, which I believe is on the rise, this platform is kiosks. Kiosks are generally situated in large towns or cities to provide information such as maps and nearby attractions, kiosks are extremely useful for anyone who is in a place they have never been before as they have easy access to anything they need to know about their current location.
Presentations are a similar platform to CD ROM’s however presentations are saved in files on a computer rather than a disc, a presentation is normally used in education to direct pupils, but is also poplar for many other things such as business meetings and lectures.
A more recent and extremely different platform is the TV click through or as some refer to it as the red button, this allows us to access information about the show we are watching and is becoming more and more interactive for example you can now vote on programmes such as the X-factor just by pressing the red button. The red button has also been used with quiz shows so you can play along while watching the quiz show, in my opinion the red button is one of the most playful platforms for interactive media.
Mobile Devices such as phones, PDA’s and games consoles are yet another recent platform, one of the best examples of this would be the iphone with is app function, apps are small programmes containing games or information and show how versatile a product can be for interactive media, another fantastic example would be the xbox 360 and its function to watch sky TV via the games consoles. Mobile devices are now becoming more than just a phone or console they are becoming unique platforms for interactive media all within themselves.
So as you can see here there are many platforms for interactive media, and also you can see the different genres of interactive media and how they merge next I will be moving onto talk about different uses of video within interactive media.
Uses of Video in Interactive Media- The title of this section n sums it all up these are the genres and uses of video within the interactive media all of which are very dominant in their own way.
Short films have grown in popularity over the years, where once ago a director may have created a short film and left it on a shelf to collect dust they can now host it all over the web, this is also a useful way for up and coming directors to get recognised possibly resulting in feature films. Many people however have become online celeberaties or favourites via their work people such as David Firth the creator of the hugely popular Salad Fingers series which has reached a large amount of hits on video host sites. Here is an example of David Firths work with Salad Fingers.
Another similarly popular form of video is promotional material, this could be anything from an advert for the latest chocolate bar to a music video, and once again the internet has proved a helpful resource, we do see adverts on TV of cause and also music videos but now these adverts can be uploaded to the online database forever so rather than music videos getting old or adverts being forgotten they can remain just as popular on the internet for long periods of time.
Film Trailers are closely linked to promotional material and are strictly the same thing however trailers have few more places they can be hosted. A popular platform for trailers for example is DVD and blu-ray they are often place on these discs as extras to add a little bit more content to the disc.
Now we come to the most recent form of video in interactive media, this is of course user generated content, this is content made by ordinary members of the public and is most commonly and currently only found on video host websites such as youtube. One of the most common user generated video genres would be vlogs, these are basically video blog or online diaries that people keep to let others all over the globe what they have been up to. User generated content is my favourite style of video in interactive media as it shows that anyone can produce fantastic work in terms of a short films or video virals.
Video Virals are one of the oddest forms of video in interactive media the most popular being the famous Charlie bit me clip which has reached over 1 billion hits on youtube alone. Virals can often however turn out to be marketing, this is called viral marketing, a fantastic example of this would be the bike hero video which was just a fun idea by a group of friends but in a way it promotes guitar hero as the video carries the themes used in the popular game. Charlie Bit Me the biggest video viral of all time shown below.
Advertising is another more common form of video but not just in the form of hosting on video sites, advertising can come in banners on a page to help promote the product, banners are small boxes on a page which contain an advertisement. But as we have mention already there are many more forms of advertising such as viral marketing and promo videos.
A slightly different type of video within interactive media is games. Personally I debate whether this is a video genre or something completely different, however despite this it is highly interactive as you take control of everything that happens particularly on console games such as halo or gears of war. Games can also be on the platform of the internet though under flash games. Flash games are short simple games designed to pass the time, another online gaming presence is MMORPG’s this stands for massive multiplayer online role playing game possibly the most successful being world of warcraft where players can not only interact with the game but also other players from all over the globe.
Finally an educational video use this is known as E-learning, E-learning can be anything from a website such as bitesize to a fun interactive educational flash game. E-learning is slowly growing in popularity some sites have proven worthy of improving pupils exams scores and so on, the internet is a wondrous platform and tool for anyone.
There we have it listed there are just a few of many styles and genres of uses of video in the interactive media, these show the wide spectrum we are working on from viral clip to world of warcraft all of it is included in the uses of interactive media. Next I shall be talking about video in interactive media technologies.
Video in Interactive Media Technologies- This title is more complex to understand this simply means the technologies used in the interactive media world things such as bandwidth and codec’s all come under this heading.
One technology that is very help particularly for user generated content would be Video Compression. Video Compression is where the quantity of data in a video is reduced so that videos can be uploaded more efficiently to the internet, video compression is also common for TV.
Codec’s are another technology used when sending or purchasing video a codec is like a key as you need the codec to decode the video when it is receive but you need to encode it when sending. However no compression of the video takes place during the sending of a video attached with a codec.
We now move to answer a question that perhaps you have always wondered the difference between streaming and downloading. Well streaming is listening to or watching video online via a site such as youtube. Downloading however is where the video is taken from the internet and saved as a file.
Talking about files there are many file types the four most common however are MPEG, AVI, MOV and WMV all of which have their own uses and properties on a computer MPEG for example deals with DVDs and other larger files it stands for Motion Picture Experts Group as this is the group of people responsible of creating the MPEG format. AVI or Audio Video Interleave which is simple the basic file types for video on windows much the same with MOV which is primarily used on apple Macs. Finally WMV a very popular file type and the easiest to use when uploading video WMV more commonly known as windows movie video is a compressed media file used by Microsoft and will on work on media players associated or created by windows.
How does your computer decide how long it takes to download a file well that is down to bandwidth this is the speed in which data is transmited between two devices most commonly this is measured in kilobytes or megabytes per second.
Much like data transfer video has its own speed to play at this is called the frame rate it is expressed as FPS frames per second, for example a slow motion clip will have a smaller frame rate than a sped up clip.
The quality of the video all depends on the resolution, a resolution is how many pixels are in the video or image HD television or video clips contain a humungous amount of pixels to maintain there high quality standards.
And of cause the size of a video is determined in KB, MB, GB or possibly even TB all of which are measurement of file size. To put it simply there are 1000 KB in a MB 1000 MB in a GB and so on.
Picture ratio is the size of the video most common is 16:9 however ratios such as 4:3 and 3:2 are also used these determine the size of the viewing window it mean 16 something by 9 something, it can be to any measurement inches, metres, centimeteres anything counts as long as it is within the desired aspect ratio.
Now how do we watch or play these videos, well certain files work with certain media players, DVD is even a media player as it is a platform for MPEG files to play on, another slightly different media player would be an iplayer this is essentially online TV, it is used for anyone who has missed a programme on TV to catch up with it a very useful and popular tool for both user and industry. QuickTime, Windows Media Player and Real are however on the computer there they are not streaming or being played via disc these are just three examples but I’m sure there are thousands of media player out there capable of supporting many file types and sizes.
Finally Embedding and Tagging, Embedding is the process of taking an HTML code from the internet and pasting it somewhere else this could be another website or maybe even a presentation on the computer, tagging is how the video is found for example if I tagged a video as viral clip when someone searched the term online or on youtube my video would be likely to appear.
Conclusion- As you can obviously see the interactive media is huge and ever expanding but what will be the next big thing we have already seen viral clips or motion recognition on the Wii. What could the next thing possibly be, I personally see it as 3D video, 3D is now common in cinema and I feel that soon enough it will move into the internet and user generated world possibly with special cameras to record 3D, but who knows we can only wait and see what the interactive media has in store for us next.
Above you can see my One Day Lip Sync Project video, the aim of this short project was to be given a piece of music and construct a lip synced film to go with it in all essence a basic music video.
The project began at 8:45 when a small brief was given about the task, following this at 9:00 all groups where given their songs our track being Vanilla Ice- Ice Ice Baby. We then thought it would be most appropriate to gather lyrics so we used the Internet to print off three sets of lyrics (one copy each). After this the group need a camera and the track itself. Therefore we got a camera from the media department and retrieved the song from the computer, unfortunately we had to record the entire song on a phone leading to very poor quality of audio.
Next came the filming we shot in two locations, the first was an old abandoned ice cream factory, behind this was a lot of graffiti we felt this position was appropriate for the video and fitted the genre of song the genre being Rap. The second location was just simply a park we didn't want to over do it with the whole "Ghetto" feeling that is given off from the graffiti, however the group set off around the park and found some interesting locations which where used well in the video.
After gathering all the footage we headed back to the college to edit our work, all editing was done on Final Cut Pro, we tried using some basic effects such as fades and colour changes as you see in the video. I believe it is a good idea to use some effects in this project so that we can get a feel for more effects when out final music video comes around. Finally the group compressed the file and uploaded to memory sticks so the videos could be taken home and place on here the blog.
Evaluation:
Overall I am extremely happy with what was produced we all worked very well as a group and had a lot of fun creating the video. I believe the finished product is very accurate in terms of lip syncing also the video doesn't feature too many locations so it is a basic/ fun music video to follow.
If this where to be done again I think I would have tried to find some sort of mobile device that can be linked to a computer so i could get the song. The audio of the recording was low and poor, I was left with the phone in my hood while recording verses.
One of the most difficult aspects for me was memorising lyrics, seeing as how this was a rap video there where alot of lyrics, the group got around this dilemma though by doing one verse each as there where three verses in total. I think the one verse idea made the music video rather more unique as there wasn't just a singer, we where all singer so it seemed more like a team effort and leads to variation within the video.
Overall I am proud of the video, it was a good challenge to film/ edit all in one day. But the finished product is something to be proud of i look forward to working with the same people again in the future, as i feel we make a good team, and together have produced an exceptional one day lip sync music video.
Music videos sometimes referred to as Pop Promos have one simple reason and that is to promote a bands, image, song and/ or album. Music videos are now very common where they were once a seen as something for chart topping bands music videos are now easy for everyone and can be viewed on various websites, helping more and more bands get recognised. Bands for example like artic monkeys have proven how good a resource the internet is although they did not produce music videos they did sell their music online leading to their success. People like the Artic Monkeys have giving bands a new way to help get their music out there. However using the internet is now a common thing and once again everyone is back to square one trying to get notice out of a mass of people. Music Videos can help many bands if they wish to get noticed if they have a fair budget and make an outstanding music video that could be their new rise to fame so as you can see music videos are a fantastic tool for all bands.
Music Videos began to appear in a well known form during the 1980’s when MTV launched showing music videos day and night. This new era of music channels sparked huge popularity with audiences all over the globe, the first music videos recorded where very simple but are now cult classics in the music video genre some cult videos may include Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and even earlier and more simple perhaps Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues. Soon enough stars where splashing millions on their music videos, for example Michael Jackson created the 14 minute music video for thriller not cause he need to simply because he had the money. Thriller was released as a song in 1982, yet the video came out in 1983 and album sales increased by an astronomical amount when the video was released showing just how much a video can help promote, a music video can give a song a whole new lease of life.
Along with this music videos are also a fantastic place for upcoming directors to start, many now famous music video directors have gone on to become popular film directors a good example would be Michel Gondry. With a small budget and simple editing software anyone can create a successful music video, it is just a case of being creative and creating an image that stays in peoples minds.
So as you can see everyone benefits from music videos, the bands get the popularity to be able to break into the mainstream. Budding directors get a chance to show their work and maybe eventually go on to live their dream and finally of cause the record companies are kept happy with the money that keeps rolling in. Where music videos where once almost non-existent or a luxury they are now a must have and large promotional device for all bands. Music Videos are an extremely important area of media and keep new talent flowing in the world.
The first music video I shall be analysing is Placebo’s 36 Degrees directed by Chris Cunningham. This video was shot mostly is a scuba diving pool, however other parts where shot in a swampy area. According to Chris Cunningham he made Brain Molko (lead singer) cry during the shoot after keeping him in freezing cold waters for long periods of time, perhaps suggesting that Cunningham’s directing style can be ruthless and hard working. More evidence to support this comes from the band themselves who confessed the video was extremely hard to shoot and that they would never do an underwater video again was the band perhaps not happy with the finished product or where they simply put off by Chris’s way of filming?.
In terms of Genre the music fits the video; the Genre is Grunge an underground style of music. The essence of the video is dark, dank and strange reflecting the Genre as it is rather unheard of, often left behind when it comes to the mainstream media. Lyrical themes in Grunge are often topics including suicide, depression and other personal feelings and in the video the lead singer is shown committing suicide by drowning himself in a swamp, linking to the actual lyrics which talk about going one degree under body temperature and fighting for your life.
Mise-En-Scene is used to reflect the situation in this video for example there is fire falling from the sky perhaps to represent that the character within the lyrics life is falling apart leading to in the end their death, another major part I found from the video is the people kicking the water in the swamp, I feel this is trying to show that the lead singer is or was being bullied that is why he is doing what he ends up doing killing himself. Cunningham also picked an exceedingly good location for the shoot; the swamp is dank, muddy, secluded and a rather disturbing place tying in with the mind of the subject in the video, even the pool is cleverly filmed as it seems that the pool is the swamp there are no mess up that give away the location making it all seem like one. Lighting in the video is to high contrast giving off a sinister, disturbing feel, if the lighting was not like this then the video would probably seem very boring also I feel it wouldn’t get the narrative across in such an effective way. Costume/ make is very basic in the video, there is on specialist theme, probably to show the raw image of the band.
The shots in the video are very snappy, with some camera movements for example the camera sometimes pans over the band when they are underwater, but most of the shots above water are static. The camera seems to float when they are underwater and perhaps it is supposed to be like this as it give off a better impression that they are situated underwater, and also give a more exciting performance aspect to the video itself. The camera movements and cuts are a lot more snappy underwater to fit with the pace of the music where as above water the movements are slower to keep with the slower pace kept within the verses of the song. Close Ups are a regular occurrence in the video, close ups make everything seem so much more mysterious so this is probably the reason, to add more mystery to the video. Some shots are also out of focus adding the mystery element of the video the lyrics also hold a mystery as a meaning has never been uncovered by the band although my interpretation is mentioned earlier in this analysis.
There are many editing techniques within this video, Cunningham relies more or special effects as appose to camera trickery, one unique technique used is that of bleaching this is common in most of his work 36 degrees is certainly not an exception the technique is called bleaching. Bleaching is where the select piece of film is duplicated, then placed on top of the existing footage a colour is then taken from the film and replaced with another in this videos case a grey/ blue tinge is added to the video for an unnerving effect. On some of the close ups in the video a blur is added however I’m not to sure whether this is done on the camera or in the post production stage, but guessing by Cunningham’s style I would say it was done within editing. Most of the transitions are simply cuts however, when the lead singer goes under and emerges from the water the camera goes through the water to give the more of a feel that it is the same location. Another transitions is the flashes during the part of the song where the lyrics are “shoulders, toes and knees I’m 36 degrees” this is when the singer is crawling through the mud clearly dying; I personally feel the flashes are added to show that life is flashing before their eyes.
The pace of the video varies it is slower when we are above water when the music is slower but when we move under it speeds up with the music, the shots are also continuous following one after another in quick succession, there are no slow fades in the video.
There is a good relationship between the lyrics and visuals in terms of lip syncing and subject. Most of the song is lip sync with the exception of a couple of scenes but all in all the video is lip synced, the singers expressions also seem to be very much giving a good impression on the lyrics, for example when he is singing the line “1 4 2 9 7 8 feels like I’m guna suffocate” etc the singer looks in pain/ worried reflecting the grim subject matter of the song. Also as previously mention the video is basically the lyrics in visual the video is what the song is about trying to stay alive when your below body temperature, although the video is twisted slightly as it seems the lead singer is trying to kill themselves however this may be a lost translation and maybe they are simply coming to the end of their days.
When it comes to music and visuals there is not much to comment on other than the pace. As I have said when we are underwater the camera shots are short and snappy free roaming, where as the shots above appear more static and less jumpy once again keeping in with the pace of the song.
Marketing of the track is rather simple the record company are trying to market the band as understanding, so that if a member of the target audience watches the video and are having a bad moment in their life they may feel the band understands them and be comforted by listening to their music. This notion of understanding also gives the band a good image promoting them as intelligent, helpful individuals, but at the same time they are represented as outsiders and leaders in the alternative music world, Witch might be a good thing for members of the target audience.
I believe the video is a Performance/ Narrative based video as of course we seeing the band playing underwater and also the lead singer lip syncing, but we also see the lead singer struggling for life and eventually dying or committing suicide due to in my eyes bullying. So as you can see we get a lot of performance visuals from the band actually playing but also a small narrative tied in aswell with the whole survival plot.
Overall I personally think the video promotes the band/ song in a positive light, certainly for anyone who is searching for something a little different. The image of the band is well portrayed and the video certainly sums up the band very well as understanding and helpful. The audience I think would have good thoughts about this video, I myself think it is a fantastic video and am a big fan of Placebo and Chris Cunningham, the video shows the band struggling and also makes it seem like the band knows what it is like to be in this situation. This may make members of their audience feel they are not alone and that there is something to live for rather than just be depressed or upset all of the time. All in all I am happy with how I have managed to sum up this video, Chris Cunningham has certainly worked hard on this video and managed to reflect the Genre in the light it should be, with the dark effects, intense performance and short narrative, these are all main parts of most alternative music videos including other alternative genres such as metal and punk.
Aphex Twin-Rubber Johnny/afx237v7:
Here is the second music video I shall be analysing. The video is Rubber Johnny also directed by Chris Cunningham, this video was initially intended to be a thirty second advert for Aphex Twins album Drukqs but before long Cunningham decided to take it further. The genre of music can only be described as experimental, although it is obviously electronic in terms of instrumentation the genre is one of a kind possibly falling into the genres of drill n bass or maybe even glitch. Due to the genre being so odd it is almost impossible to say the characteristics, however I feel the music and the video go very well together most of Aphex Twin’s music is exceedingly disturbing much like the Rubber Johnny video. The minds of Aphex Twin and Chris Cunningham really do go hand in hand.
Within this video there is a great deal of Mise-En-Scene from location to make up and even costume. In terms of location the video is set in a basement where Rubber Johnny a strange deformed teenager played by Richard D James (Aphex Twin) lives with his pet chihuahua. The basement is obviously very run down as in the beginning of the video we see a rat scurry across the floor giving the impression we are in a filthy place reflecting the music entirely with its distorted random beats which are rather strange by themselves. As for make up and costume you can see a great deal of work has gone into this area with Rubber Johnny there was obviously a lot of effort gone into creating Johnny,s costume just by looking at the video you could maybe be fooled into think Rubber Johnny was an actual person in terms of the costume, all details have been filled to make Rubber Johnny that little bit more scary, and it has certainly paid off, we can see this by reading various comments on video hosting networks where the audience have been tricked into thinking that Rubber Johnny is an actual person this really shows the quality of Cunningham’s special effects and attention to detail. The lighting or more lack of it is hard to describe evidently only a few small light where used considering the whole film is shot is Infrared Night Vision, the night vision aspect however shows us the Johnny is obviously a very isolated/ ill treated individual more clues to this include when his father opens the door to yell at him, his only real friend seems to be his dog who we see him talking to at the end of the video.
Most of the shots are static almost like Johnny has set up the camera to film himself, although there are a few close ups which make the video flow in a more orderly fashion and add to the disturbing element of the whole video. The only time we really see the camera move is when Johnny is dashing around behind the walls, but this is to help keep with the pace; however son after this the camera returns to a static position. In terms of the editing side there are a huge amount of special effects added in the video as we see Johnny morphing as he dances; along with also probably a lot of Johnny’s movements have been created in CGI. One part that really sticks out for me in the special effects side is when we see Johnnys face hitting against the camera lens and every time it hits the shape of his face will change, I found this particularly strange however do not know how this was done. Personally I would speculate that Cunningham made Richard D James hit his face against the camera and then Cunningham has added an exceeding amount of Special Effects onto to distort Johnnys face. The lights are another aspect of the special effects, the thin lines of light that flash up with the beat in the music, I think this is represent lights that Johnny has on while he is dancing to the music.
The entire video is based on music moving to visuals as you can see and Cunningham’s intention was to show a raver (Rubber Johnny) morphing as he danced to the music, every time something happens within the video it may be the start of something else for example at the beginning everything is silent but as soon as Johnny begins talking this sets off the notion of the music. All the movements of Johnny correspond with the music in a perfect fashion. Another good example is when Johnny is dashing behind the walls this is a more ambient section of the song but whenever the laser noise comes in one of the small stripes of light flashes in unison with the music.
Rubber Johnny is an extremely odd video to help promote a band or artist, I believe the idea here is to disturb the viewer making them want to watch it again and again. Or perhaps the record labels company was to make it something of a video viral, with the video spreading entirely by word of mouth. The video really sticks in your head as it is so vastly different from other more well known music videos, although this seems to be a running theme in Aphex Twins’s videos most of which have dark and disturbing concepts.
This video is certainly not a performance based video, I would say it is a narrative based video as the plot of the video is about a deformed isolated teenager who enjoys dancing to his music, but seems to always get told off by his father. The video tells the story of a very lonely person’s life and what it must be like to always be neglected or tossed aside.
All in all I feel the video is a phenomenal idea and really does promote the artist/ song, it sticks in your head and is a video you just have to make others watch and of course if you keep watching it the music will grow on you, Rubber Johnny is like a virus once you have seen it you have to spread it and look deeper into the director and artists work. Overall this video should fulfil anyone’s expectations as it is just indescribable every scene is strange, dark and disturbing, Cunningham and Aphex Twin have work so hard to come up with what I see as one of the most incredible music videos of all time.
