Music Video Conventions

Music Video Analysis: Hold On by Don Broco

Hold on is a music video that relies on the relationship between performance and music. It largely depicts the group surrounded by women dressed in the same white vests and kahki trousers with knee high leather boots, to me the setting along with the costume resembles the upper classes of England, and it shows the group, particularly Rob (lead singer) in control of the woman, almost using them as object. However, some of the lyrics and visuals show them as desiring the group, or even using the group to their own advantage (shot depicting one of the guitarists holding the phone for one of the women).

 During the performance scenes of the video the band wears a smart casual attire.  The main vocalist regularly looks directly into the camera which i think is effective, making it appear he is explaining himself or his way of life or even talking to the viewers. I think the editing is very effective, at the beginning the main vocalist opens to large doors into a room, at the same time a black bars appears in the middle and separates to the edges. Similar black bars are used to split the screen to show various other scenes happening simultaneously. I find this gives the video a very clean look, which supports the very upper class theme that shows superiority and control.

This video is a contrast to what we could normally expect from the alternative rock genre, this is very classy, clean, and organised. Whereas rock tends to be more spontaneous. As mentioned before the editing continuously brings us to Rob's gaze, and whilst the lyrics talks about women and sometimes in a sexual manner this could be referring to voyeurism. Though as the lyrics also say 'hold on, hold on' and 'something fishy's going on' could be suggesting that the females intentions aren't exactly what the group shown were expecting, as seen with visuals of the women smothering rob, and using the other band members. 

Green Screen Experimentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRpUeGDfceU&feature=youtub.be

During lesson we practised using green screen. We tried various different effects and camera types, and we also tried changing the lighting to see what difference it would make to the final piece. Link above is the video we made.

Music Video Analysis: Zombie - Cranberries

This music video uses an effective lyric and visual relationship. The video mainly focuses on three different narratives that all link, as well as performance of the group itself. The lyrics and video link to war and the black and white editing with high contrast depict soldiers and young children pretending to fight a war. This Irish rock band create the song Zombie in protest to the conflict in Northern Ireland, and the 'zombie' that is often referred to can represent war which takes over. The mise-en-scene provokes realism with casual clothing, however the scene of the main singer painted gold and standing at a cross stands out. The costume is similar to that of ancient Egyptian make-up and i like how the slow panning and tilting shots make the lyrics feel more personal. It does this by showing the main vocalist (painted in gold) singing the song whilst showing mental distress over violence and death, with the many children surrounding her acting like her children that are also effected.

I think this video represents violence in many difference situations. For example the black and white images of soldiers on road sides and destroyed buildings generally depicts war, and the images of children fighting could also depict bullying, as some scenes seem to become progressively aggressive. I also find the use of the colour scene when a dog is focused on eating some large bones. This use of intertextuality is effective and makes the song more relatable.

There are a lot of low angle shots in many of the different situations and i think this is effective in making the viewer feel like the visuals they are seeing is uncontrollable, and to me helps to feel the emotion and frustration of the lyrics and the gold painted singer. Close up shots are used for this character and i think they further make her emotions feel more believable. Editing between shots is irregular but usually matches the rhythm of the music. I also noticed that one young boy shown in the gold scenes is also one of the young boys pretending to be in a fight or war in the black and white scenes. This to me could show how violence can effect people, particularly young children exposed to it.

The group itself is shown to be smart casual, occasionally shown in colour with red glows.the focus here is not the band themselves, but the narrative and lyrics that they're using to convey the meaning of the song.

Music Video Analysis: Army of Me - Bjork

Army of me is a very experimental music video which heavily relies on the relationship between visuals and the music. For me the narrative relates to the song very little, but her style and star image is nothing like mainstream music and parallels typical conventions of music videos.

Editing in this video is used to emphasize the music, particularly the beat, using dramatic, rhythmic editing that also relate to visuals of Bjork slamming her hands to the dashboard before her. Everything within this video looks like a comic come to life, and it grabs the viewers attention with odd costumes and surroundings that amplify the music. Most shots used in this video are static with the occasional dolly or pan to follow Bjork's movements. I find the narrative interesting because of its over-the-top visuals such as the flaming lorry exhaust, the gorilla dentist and blowing up the museum. I think this amplifies the music and gives it a 'heavier' feel. I think all the actions of Bjork does however relate slightly to the lyrics, showing that she is confident alone to get things done.

Practice: Rhythmic Cutting

Today we experimented with some general shot types, like handheld close ups, extreme close ups and other typical conventions of a pop music video. After we had some basic footage we practiced on Final Cut Pro to make some rhythmic cutting to the beat of the soundtrack. Below is evidence of how we achieved our small final outcome. We also experimenting with masking at the very beginning of our short music video.