Music Video Evaluation

If I am completely honest, I feel that this project was doomed from the formation of our group. In our first meeting we all spoke about ideas, however it soon became obvious that none of our ideas were remotely similar and they wouldn’t work together. As a group of musicians I think that we all felt a certain amount of pressure to create something that we felt was expected of us. I think it was this that caused the major and majority of our problems.
Once we had made a unanimous decision to compose a song rather than using garage band, we all set off writing our own lyrics. It turned out that Stuart was the only one who had gone as far as to put a tune and backing track to the lyrics he wrote, so this gave him the upper hand. We naturally chose his song because it was solid, had a good tune we could all work on and to save time. It is here that the balance in the group shifted quite considerably, with Stuart having a natural affection towards his song, this made him more closed off to other peoples ideas, however through no fault but my own, the situation worsened when we started discussing ideas once more, I wanted something with more narrative than what Stuart was discussing and I spoke up about it which caused a great deal of stress not only to me and Stuart but also to Sam and Dan, the two other members in our group. At the time I thought I was contributing to ideas for the video, however, in all honesty, it might have been better if I never spoke up about what I thought as the arguments continued which brought the moral in our group to an all time low. After this my attitude to the work was very blasé and I knew if I spoke up again then all hell would break loose. As a result of this Stuart took on most of the work and it felt like me and Dan who were the only two left in the group after Sams’ ill health were simply actors who had been chosen, we gave ideas and offered help but I don’t think we tried hard enough, I think Stuart saw I had lost faith in the project and allowed me to drift away from the workload, which I don’t blame him for, it was completely understandable.
Our video as we planned would consist of the journey of two people walking down a street and as one person walked into a side road, the other walked out. This had to be timed perfectly and I thought it would have been harder for me and Dan to achieve than it was. I got a call from Dan later that night to say that none of our work that day had come out right so we would be re filming the next day, I assumed that we would still use the same idea. However when we got to location, we were told a slightly different rendition of what we would be doing, which sounded like a great idea. We filmed us walking down the street from a car window and then each had our own section to work on where we could do whatever we wanted. I am disappointed that Stuart stayed behind the camera, as I felt if he had come out then it would have felt more like a group effort, however, due to unfortunate circumstances he wasn’t able to as he had to either drive or film. It is here that I started thinking that we should have chosen something that could involve all of us, although Stuarts determination to create something amazing was enough to make him go back into college, realise that the footage we had shot was nothing but clips of people messing around on some grass, and take his bike and a camera and film on single sequence of biking round a road, and as much as I hate to admit it, it did look amazing, he did a great job despite all the struggle and I am genuinely disappointed in myself that I lost faith and therefore lacked in effort to help Stuart create something that we could all be proud of. Overall, I have decided from this project that I don’t want to make another music video out of choice, ever, and that if I did I would do the simplest thing that came to mind and stick with it.




Group Idea

Music Video Group Idea
Title of Song
‘Sing The Silence’

Target Audience
Male/Female 16-40

Duration
3 - 3.5 Minutes

Filming Location
Eagle Way area, Martlesham Heath

Cast And Crew
Daniel Lee-Harvey
Stuart Hilpert
Sam Routledge
Jessica Fawkner Simpson

Synopsis
There will be a formless narrative, and will follow the journey of 4 individuals as they walk along a road. It will be filmed from a car and will have a speed to it that fits the music and appeals the target audience.

Treatment
‘Sing The Silence’ best described as alternative rock will be an interesting piece of music to work with, as the codes and conventions for this genre of video for music relies on abstract visuals.
The video will follow the simple journey of 4 individual’s daily routine, seamlessly walking. The camera will follow only one individual at a time and as that individual’s ‘journey’ comes to an end when they leave into a side road, the next individual will walk out from the opposite side of the road and the camera will then follow them. This will go on for each individual.
The first individual is walking their dog, and then the dog will run off, and the individual will chase the dog into the side road where the second individual will then appear and walk to the bus stop, check the time and carry on walking, they will walk into another side road and then individual 3 will walk out and look forlornly at a couple kissing, following the theme, they will then walk into the side road and individual 4 will walk out, walk into a lamppost, fall over and then get up and carry on walking. As this is the last individual the car which we are using to film from will come to a stop and film the individual walking into the distance.
It will be shot in one take which we will film from a car window, using a clamp to keep the camera steady. Inspiration has been taken from video such as Bat For Lashes – What’s A Girl To Do and The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony.

Lip Sync Project

Our lip sync project proved to be harder than we all expected, we started off with what we thought were brilliant ideas, that then soon turned out to be alot harder. 'Looks Like We Made It' - Barry Manilow was the only song by him that i didn't know, so we had to learn the lyrics and try to fathom what the song was about. We wanted to film a narrative sequence of a girl and guy breaking up. But it soon turned out to be sort of random lip syncing and then shots of people hugging. As random and unexpected it was I think it worked really well, and got a really good feel for the song. I would willingly do a project like that again and would work with anyone as our whole class group really pulled together to show we could all have fun.

Purposes of Music Videos

For each and every band out there, there is a certain style of music video (pop promo) they choose to follow, eg, Paramore tend to follow performance based videos, and HelloGoodbye follow narrative based videos. However, each of these have to be based around the target audience that the band their producers wish to meet.
Examples of this can be found in all types of music genre videos such as Rap. Hip hop videos have the tendency to show large expensive houses, expensive cars and women dancing with lots of jewellery on, and rock videos have mainly performance based representations of their music, with some narrative that may or may not correspond to the lyrics. Music videos first came about in the mid 1960s, with bands such as The Beatles & The Rolling Stones creating short films which they used to promote thier records. This allowed people to hear their music, and in a sense see the band no matter what thier current location was all around the world without them having to be there to see them playing live. this in-turn them rasied the appeal and demand for thier tracks.However, the BBC placed strict limits as to how many could be shown, which encouraged artists to produce ones at a high standard so that the song's sales would increase due to viewers wanting to see it again the following week. It took a while for this idea to take off and into the early 1970’s more and more bands were making pop promos that were then beginning to be featured on shows such as Top Of The Pops. However, the BBC placed strict limits as to how many could be shown on thier channel, and with the BBC being the most watched and broadcasted channel at the time, artists began to produce music videos at a high standard so that they had more chance of being shown and so that song's sales would increase due to high demand from viewers wanting to see it again the following week. It took until the 1980’s for pop promos to become mainstream, with the launch of MTV in 1981, a station which aired pop promos non stop, music videos were available to anyone anywhere in the world, not only was this service free, it caused the sales of bands records and albums to rocket higher than they had ever been.
Initially however, it was mainly British acts that werecreating music videos to be sent to MTV to be broadcasted, which caused a 'Brit Invasion' into the US charts. This in-turn caused more american and canadian acts to follow up and create thier music videos to, and it wasn't long before pop promos became a world wide sensation. As many people know, the most popular pop promo known so far, seems to be ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. Regularly dubbed as the best music video of our time, the 14 minute video created my Michael Jackson and John Landis would have been expected to reach it’s high expectations with a budget of $500,000 as it was it made turn overs of over 1 million dollars in a short amount of time, and resulted in over 110 million copies of the song being sold world wide.
Most bands will release 3 to 4 ‘singles’ which are tracks off the album, to give the listeners a preview of what they might be buying if they choose to buy the album. Pop Promos are ultimately used to help boost the sales of records and albums, most people prefer to see a music video to understand what the song is about, rather than just listen to it. However occasionally songs come out that sell four or five times the amount that the video is played on MTV or wathed on Youtube, such as Owl City's - Fireflies. If they are successful in creating a music video that caters to everyones taste, the songs and videos live on and are found being played on MTV, Kerrang!, Scuzz, and even iPods at all times of day, and thanks to the latest technology, they can be found on phones and download sites such as IsoHunt, Limewire and Spotify, and this doesn't just meant the track, you can download the video aswell to your computer, laptop or mobile phone.

Analysis of Music Videos

'Brick By Boring Brick' Paramore

The director Meiert Avis, used CGI to help create this wonderland in which the video is based, it allowed him to be more creative and unrestricted to what he could do, rather than being stuck in a studio, there was no limit to what he could create, and he chose to breach all the boundaries to create a visually spectacular piece of art.
The video begins with an aerial shot of a densely wooded landscape that appears to be fictional; it then pans downwards towards a young child in a white dress, with butterfly wings holding her toy doll, a picture of innocence. As oranges and red's are the main colours chosen, they naturally cast dark shadows in areas of the shot, this depicts that the girls perfect world isn't quite as perfect as it seems. The butterfly wings are used as a symbol throughout the video and feature a major part on the front cover of Paramores' latest album.
The girl in the white dress, runs through the woodland area and then the camera cuts to lead singer Hayley who is wearing a white dress dissimilar to the one that we see the small girl wearing, this implies that the little girl you see running around is in fact Hayley when she is younger.
The video continues so on and so forth seeing the girl enter a fantasy land that she appears to create in her imagination to escape from the outside world, however things take a sinister turn when she goes into her castle and is looking in a mirror and other people appear who are of malicious and malevolent persona, thus showing us that it is time for the little girl to stop hiding away and face the real world, to grow up.
Even though Avis refuses to openly promote the band using performance based video he chooses to focus on Williams' song writing skills, it is these which inevitably draw your attention, indeed this ethos is perhaps one thing which attracts the target audience, Avis has chosen a diverse route and produced a video based on narrative and concept, this allows for the true connotation of Williams' lyrics to be put into effect.
The video took one day to film, with a crew of roughly 30, though no actual budget has been mention for the video, given that it is one of the latest videos for a Paramore song, it was supposedly not very impressive, so how something this incredible could come out of a small budget is bemusing to most.
The intended audience for this video is unambiguous in the sense that where the video leads to in the end is the subliminal message that teenagers who tend to struggle with fitting in to the right 'clique' and generally growing up can easily to relate to this song and the video that accompanies it, as we all want to live in our own fairytale world one that is superior to the one we are in, and that it's time to stop and grow up.
Avis chose to use intertextuality throughout the duration of the video, by using CGI effects to create a world only known to us in dreams, fairytale references were made throughout with shots of characters from Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and varying princess films. Although no boys or men were depicted in the video as the ones in the fairytale land, Avis relies on the male fans to succumb to the ideas of the video, and perhaps to the theory that the only people ever imagining are girls.

Starstrukk – 3OH!3 feat Katy Perry

Jocz (pronounced yotch) Is from the rock band Sum41 and has only recently started directing and had his first directing debut in 2006 with 'Change of Mind' by The Midway State, he then went on to direct 10 more music videos in this short space of time. Jocz is a versatile director and find ways of representing each band he directs for in their own individual way, so when 3OH!3 commissioned him to direct their music video, there was huge amounts of hype about it and high expectations.

Jocz managed to exceed these expectations not only in a exuberant way that already defines 30H!3 but in a way that talks about society today. The inspiration for this song, and video comes from the film ‘When in Rome’ as it features on the soundtrack, this is called intertextuality.

‘When in Rome’ is a film in which several men fall in love with a woman who takes their coins from a wishing fountain in Rome. 30H!3 have swapped the roles however, so they are the ones who take the coins from the fountain and then proceed to be chased by a group of numerous females down the streets of Los Angeles County Natural History Museum's Rose Garden in Exposition Park. Directed by Steve Jocz, 30H!3 have managed to create a visually comical pop promo, which suits the song, and the band, as the have tendencies to star in videos where they are more than happy to make fun of themselves.

The video starts with a shot of the two 3OH!3 band members Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, sitting at the edge of the fountain, when Nathaniel sees an attractive woman come and make a wish on a coin and throw it into the fountain, it then proceeds to show the woman turn suddenly and run at Nathaniel leaping on him and forcing herself on him, Sean then sees what has happened and turns to the fountain aswell, and takes 3 handfuls of coins, causing even more women to come running for him. 3OH!3 shot the video with Katy Perry, who is also featured in the video taking coins and being chased by men.

This speaks in many ways, at first looks to the untrained eye it looks like any other music video that has the intertextuality of a film, however to those who choose to indulge themselves, it could be seen as not only just a music video for a film, but a way of Jocz using the films context to put across his own views on society today.

In the video all the women throw themselves at the two band members, without thinking twice because they are under this supposed 'spell' and the two men willingly accept it, it could be argued that here Jocz is trying to show that in society today young and older women have less respect for themselves, and will be very forward about what they want in order to gain a hierarchy against other females, and that men simply accept this as the norm for today.

The women only fall in love with the two band members after they take their coins from the well, and the spell falls upon them, this could also be seen as showing that women only act this way simply because 'everyone else is doing it' so it seems less shameful to have little respect for yourself and just put it all out there and go round chasing men when in fact it is expected of the men to do the chasing.

Music Video Director Research

Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel; October 22, 1969) is an American director and producer, and one of the most well known around the world. His work includes Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are, and is also the co-creator of MTV’S Jackass. Music video wise, he has directed for The Beastie Boys, Daft Punk, Tenacious D and Kanye West. He is also the currently the creative director of VBS.tv and part owner of skateboard company Girl Skateboards. Jonze is also responsible for co-founding Directors Label with Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry. This is a series of DVDs devoted to distinguished music video directors. Launched in 2003 by Palm Pictures, the series of DVDs was created by Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry, each owning a whole volume to thier name, and again in 2005, four new volumes were added to the collection. In the mid 1980s Jonze worked at the Rockville BMX Store for the duration of his junior high school, where he was dubbed "Spike Jonze" from here on in, this was to be his chosen name. Jonze then went on to work as a photographer for "Freestylin" a popular skating magazine, where he met co-editors Mark "Lew" Lewman and Andy Jenkins, with whom he then fronted Club Homeboy, an internationally known BMX club. Going from strength to strength two youth culture magazines Homeboy and Dirt were later released. Dirt was often reffered to as a "Sassy Magazine for boys," as it was published by the same company and sold in clear plastic wrapping with the current landmark magazine for young women. Not being one to stand still in July of last year, Jonze bought the rights to make a film adaptation of Light Boxes, a fantasia style novel written by acclaimed author Shane Jones. A story in which a war is waged against a group of balloonists, thus suiting Jonze' flare for eccentricity. Word on the street is that Jonze will act as producer with Ray Tintori who is rumoured to be director.
As a director, Jonze has directed for The Beastie Boys creating 5 of their most famous videos, also helping to write one. Sabotage came out in 1994 for which Jonze was the writer and director for this production. It became famous due to it’s acclaimed music video, which consists of a parody and pays homage to 1970’s crime shows such as Starsky and Hutch. The video is played out as if it is the opening credits to a 1970’s style crime show which is named Sabotage, each of the band members are given a character to play. Throughout the duration of the video, the band members are shown in freeze frame motion, with their names appearing on the screen. Unfortunately, due to Jonze’ eccentric directing style and ideas, parts of the video had to be removed in order for it to be played on MTV. Some of the scenes to be cut included someone falling off the bridge, a scene where someone is thrown out of a car and a knife fight scene, yet some saw it as his best work yet; "This is the greatest music video of all time. Thriller's all right but it is nowhere near as awesome as this." Early September 1994 called for the MTV music video awards in which the music video Sabotage, lost out to both Aerosmith's “Cryin’,” and R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" video for both Best Director and Best Breakthrough video. Jonze is known mainly for his eccentric approach to his work, and it is perhaps this ethos that has got him so far in the directing world. All of the audience response to Jonze’ work is nothing but admirable, this comment was found on the customer review section on Amazon, when you go to buy one of Spike Jonze’ DVD’s, of which there are many.
“Spike Jonze is an amazing music video director and this DVD is a great collection of his groundbreaking work that dominated MTV for much of the 1990s. He is probably the most influential director of the medium, and this DVD serves as a great showcase for his diversity.”
and; “Director of his calibre is excellent.”

Due to his outstanding work and contemporary skill to represent a band and himself at the same time, Jonze has won numerous awards including; Critics Choice Award (2000), Chlotrudis Award (2000), MTV Movie Award (2000), Silver Berlin Bear (2003), Independent Spirit Award (2009), and many more. Out of the 33 awards he has been nominated for, he has won 15 and currently has 3 DVD documentaries on his work, all of which have outstanding critic and audience reviews.
"Okay, whoever came up with that idea, just waking up one day and going Let's have Christopher Walken dancing, needs to be given a gold medal on something"
Even those who don't necessarily know who Spike Jonze is still appreciate his off the wall approach to his music videos. California by WAX, is one of the most influencial music videos of our time, stills from the video were even chosen to front the cover of the DVD Directors Label. The video features a man running through the street, whilst he is on fire. The slow motion Jonze has chosen to capture it in makes for a visually stunning finished product. Loved by critics, fans and collegues alike, this video has made it's imprint on the media world. "I like how Spike Jonze doesn't literly film the lyrics. You can be more creative that way."

Not withstanding the imense success Jonze has had in the music video industry, not many though know that he's done a whole host of commercials as well.
His commercial for Gap, made in December 2005, where shoppers and staff are seen to destroy the interior of the store including it's merchandise had mixed reviews.
"GREAT WORK...only Mr.Jonze can do it that way. u can tell his touch"
This YouTube user is a clear Jonze fan.
"i dont really understand this commercial. what changes has GAP made to their business?"

On the other hand this user is unable to appreciate Jonze' view outside the box, and perhaps is used to a more traditional approach to video. However went on to win awards along with various other commercials Jonze has directed.
Jonze himself once said;
"As a feature film director you got to be a guarding dog of the whole production. You got to be able to hold 100 script pages in the head at the same time. If you miss a detail it's wasted...."

Bibliography

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