A2 Media Studies
Genre-House
House Information
Martin Solveig-Intoxicated
This is in the genre of house however i would say its more of soft house as it has a pop vibe towards it. It's a very conceptual video as it has no story behind it and just follows the word intoxicated and uses imagery to match it. The word'intoxicated' is amplified and they make a video all about it as its a house video it doesnt have many lyrics and this was a lyric they chose to use and follow and be artistic with.
This music video contains many people all dancing together and involves many costume changes and lots of different camera shots and angles. To start off the mise en scene in terms of costume is very strange however links to what the music lyrics are. The song mentions the word intoxicated so the use off high key lighting and a bright colour palette makes it seem as if the audience are also intoxicated as people tend to see more happy images and more bright colours when intoxicated. The clothing is also very limited as they dont wear much with most of them wearing swim suits. The setting is in a blank white room making it seem as if everything is a blur and all you can see is the poeple in the room. This further anchors the point of them being intoxicated and the audience viewing it in the smae way.
Cinematography is very creative as it uses a wide range of methods such as a lot of panning shots or tracking shots. It will often track throught the females and males wearing their swim suits and it will change everytime it tracks along. This could represent that there were many strange thing they do when intoxicated as they go through numerous outfits such as dress up animals. Most of the video is shot from high angle with the occasional low angle shot and some eye level. The idea behind this could be that the people were looking down on are intoxicated and aren't at a certain level or the stereotypical image of a drunk person in gutter. The use of shallow focus is used once again to imply that the audience are seeing the video in a intoxicated way making certain items blurry in different scenes.
The video editing method is matched to the beat of the song meaning that when the song starts to change or you hear a certain sort of bass noise over and over again it will cut in time to make it match the music. Also since the genre of the music is house it is often very fast paced like this song is this means the use of short takes are a key convention to this music video being a prime stand out point. The use of short takes makes the audience see a lot more and allows the video director to be more creative as a house song does not have many lyrics so it is hard to make a narrative video and this is why we often see a conceptial video such as intoxicated.
Avicii- Waiting for love
Calvin Harris-Outside
Another house video however i would say gthis one is more towards the pop side as it has many different tempos fluctuating through out the video and song. Avicii is known for these sort of comical videos as he never stars in any videos and gets actors to tell a story in a way that is not boring and long. This is a narrative video as he is telling the story of the oldman who goes in search of his wife aftershe leaves just to find out she was throwing a surprise party. I would say in some parts it is illustrative because he says love and then we see a picture of his wife who is clearly his love and the song doesn't amplify or contradict so i would say its a illustrative video but not with a lot of detail like some other illustartive videos.
Avicii is not seen in his video instead he uses a set of characters to tell a story which is very typical of his house genre. Many editing techniques used are what make this video unique in my opinion along with the comedical side. The time lapse at the beginning of the video is a effect not often used by directors as they usually cut to another time however the time lapse fits perfect with the song as its a slow part that is ressembled in the video. In terms of all basic editing they have done it so that all of the cuts match the song and also the pace of the video matches the song so when there is a low tempo the video slows done the a long shot of the man on the scooter. Another match i saw was the link between the word 'love' in the lyrics and a picture of the mans wife on camera. This was strong as it showed his love and made sense of the lyrics. A flashback is used once during the video showing the wife being very sexual for the man which is a comedy element as its very untypical of a lady her age
Cinematography was a strong point as they used many different types of shots which i found good as it kept people watching interested. A lot of long shots are used and extreme long shots when we see the man in the country side on his scooter. They make the camera move by panning along the road with the wide shot showing a lot of the scenery. It then varys between close ups of different objects such as his scooters wheels in the repair shop and a picture of his wife.
Mise en scene is very comedical as we see the man getting his scooter customized to be faster as seen in the wide shot of the garage. The comedy comes from the fact that he is chasing love wearing his typical old man sweater and hat yet has a fast scooter. The video uses a lot of natural lighting such as the sun giving a lens flare and also the natural lighting would have made it easier as they are travelling through many locations meaning extra lights wouldn't need to be set up. During the biker scene we see the set of bikers through a wide shot in formantion with the old man which is untypical and it then follows to a wild party where we have the old man just silent not fitting into the enviroment as we would expect.
This song matches the genre of house/pop/dance because the song fluctuates through different tempos. Calvin Harris is a artist who uses a lot of women in his videos for the male gaze and mainly because its his way of telling a story through using attractive girls. The video its self is a narrative video as there is a clear story between two couples breaking up and then coming together on the outside. Showing the inside as a dark place with not much fun or life to it. I would say it matches the theory of being illustrative as it tells a story rather than following the word 'outside' or contradicting by keeping everything in the video inside a building.
Mise en scene for Calvin Harris's videos usually has very little clothing on women which is clearly seen in this video by Ellie Goulding wearing a sports bra under her jacket showing a lot of her body. Meanwhile Calvin Harris in the video is shown as a 'Badboy' character with his shirt un-buttoned and very masculine through the use of props he has such as his motorbike. Motorbikes are often related to a manly sport so showing him as the tough character in the video is a way to make his star persona look better in the media such as tabloids. The setting of a suburb is very typical however the way they show it in the video is low key lighting inside to represent a dark place where all your troubles are hidden and then the outside is very high key natural lighting used to show freedom and the idea of escaping inside troubles. This was the message sent to me and if so i think it was shown very clearly between the juxtaposition of the different locations.
Cinematography is very typical where we have the high angles of Ellie Goulding showing her as an innocent character who is vulnerable which is i have said is typical as we often see the women being weaker than the male. Meanwhile we have Calvin Harris shown with a lot of low angles making him more powerful and making him the alpha male. On some of the outside shots the camera pans into Ellie's face showing her facial expression which looks very desperate and depressed which is key to telling the story between her and the other guy.
Editing in this video shows two stories by using cross cutting which is clearly seen by the different characters and change of settings. Cross cutting is precise so it doesn't cut at a bad time in the lyrics where the singer is left mid sentence. Freeze frames are used such as near the end as the bike goes over Ellie's head and freezes this could be to suggest her trouble shes in as people often say when you are confused its like time stops. I felt like this was very powerful in getting a message across if understood to a certain extent. We also see the shattering glass effect as glass falls towards the camera with Ellie in shot could be reflecting how she feels rather than just there for look .Short takes are used in time with the beat of the song especially on the fast tempo areas we often see many different shots before one long take of Calvin riding his bike or Ellie breaking down on the floor outside the house.
3 Past student pieces of work
Macklemore- Cant hold us
The genre of this song is pop/dance which is very usual for Macklemore because he is partners with Ryan Lewis who is his beat maker who makes the song for Macklemore to rap on. The student video made defiently follows a narrative as we have the two robbers who chase the guy down for his bag which was taken mistakingly however i feel like they tried to add some conceptual aspects to it as they had the comic effect and many more comedicale effects. I say the lyrics are illustrative as there are many different types of scenarios in this video which could all be interpreted in a different way to match the lyrics. I feel like this matches Macklemore's conventions however as a whole pop genre it doesn't match many conventions other than the fast paced video to match the song. I say it follows Macklemore because he is known for making comical videos and the video they re-made was very comical and they matched with comedy of their own that was unique and came together well.
A creative video all comes together mainly in the editing process because you are able to add almost anything you want. These students added a lot of effects in the editing progress such as the comic effect where the speech bubbles appear. This comedy element made the video have a lot better look making it more rewatchable and it attracted the audience throughout using effects such as this and the freeze frame combined with the comic book. Slow motion was added at certain parts to give the video a better look and it went with the lyrics as it was one of the slow tempo areas it was used in. We then have the surveillance camera effect used to signify who the robbers are as they chase after the person. The effect was not needed as we can see from costume however it went nicely and made the video interesting to watch.
Cinematography for this video is creative in the way they try to use as many different camera shots as possible such as the high angle tracking shots in the ally ways. It looked good and surved a purpose as the characters would take it in turns to look at the camera and rap towards it walking down the ally. It was more creative than a standard eye line shot of the camera walking back and the shot they used was very steady so they must have used some sort of mount to keep it in that position. Camera shots such as the over the shoulder from the front show the audience whats going to happen before it happens as its often used to show the thiefs running after the bag. The comedy comes from this shot as we can see the thiefs however the man holding the ban is unaware of the danger. The most interesting shot i would say is the 360 panning shot they use when the three characters are stood in the circle having the stare off. It worked a lot better than fast cuts to each face and it kept the continuity of the video flowing in a good manor.
The mise en scene for this video was obviously well planned out as they had a lot of different items used to create a story. For example the costume of all the characters was good as we had this one guy who looked either like a student or a bussiness worker and then we had the two thieves who played a cliche thief with the white and black stripes to look like a bandit. Then the locations were varied as they had lots of locations as they ran around London all after one bag which was a key prop used to make the video have a narrative. The locations weren't the best however one location which was the ally stood out as unique because it was perfect. It had no people walking past meaning they had space and time to shot what they had to do and also they had it all planned out as they were able to keep walking down the ally before their shot ran out and they were forced to stop walking or improvise. A strange turn in the video was the chicken seen at the end which nobody was expecting and this was another element of comedy because the whole time they chased a chicken which wouldn't be easy to access which once again shows how much planning they had.
Out of all the student videos this was the only one to add some extra sound which was the use of sound effects such as the phone call he recieves at the beginning which made it clear he was actually talking on the phone. Also there was the comedy around halfway through where they had the dance contest and you had the use of another called 'Get hyper' implemented into the video which had no relevance to the story but once again following the style of Macklemore they tried to creat comedy and succeded.
Hozier-Take me to church
The genre of this song is Indie which means its a independent video/song and that its not produced by one of the large producer groups. The students video is partly narrative however i feel like it has a hint of conceptual to it as it talks about the church and then the shots after that are the actors lip syncing in black and white in numerous places with naturistic shots. The lyrics are amplified in the video as Hozier talks about church and we see numerous shots of a church and other than that none of the other lyrics are amplified by the video. A convention of indie is to have a low budget video that doesn't follow the conventions of a pop video such as a load of women being objectified and this video defiently follows those conventions and many others such as the use of a skeleton crew where one camera is used.
The music video follows the real video in the fact that it uses a black and white colour scheme which i would say is used to match the tone of the song as its quit a mellow and slow tempo song. Because the genre of this song is indie it doesn't follow the convention of cutting to the beat and instead uses a lot of fades o match the emotion of the song making it seem very bleak and sorrow. Fades are often used when the singer stops so you dont miss any of the lip sync and on certain occasions you will have the fast cut to another camera shot of the same scene to make it more interesting and keep the audience attracted. The video has been synced with lyrics as we can tell by the chorus talking about church and then we see a shot of a church and our singer standing next to it.
The mise en scene of the video is basic yet executed at all the right times. For example the use of lighting on only the face in some scenes gives of a good effect as we see the mysterious singer and we don't get much other details about him. The costume once again is very basic however it has a certain look to it that doesn't tell us much about the artists and shows him as a rough guy going through a hard time. The lip syncing in this video is clear which helps the audience to understand what they are watching and i feel like getting good lip sync is a hard thing to master.
With a indie video the cinematography is not known for its crazy and creative camera shots and different types of camera movement. This video compared to the real video are very similar as they both use a steady camera set on a tripod rather than a shaky hand following the artists. When the artists is in shot we have a clear focus on him as the movement of the artists and camera is very still and lip syncing and facial expression is the key view. The different angles used were eye line and high angle and i think the high angle told a story of the song as it signified the artist as vulnerable and that he needs church. Close ups are the most frequent camera shots used as they clearly show us all the important features which is his face and mainly lips.
M83-Midnight city
Compared to the real video this is a lot different in terms of the narrative behind it however I would say they both follow the convention of having quite a strange video. The song its self is a dance/soft house song with moments where the tempo will fluctuate. I feel like the student work has tried to follow some sort of narrative however I felt like it was very unclear as to what was happening and it just turn’s into a conceptual video with a few cutaways of people being kidnapped. The lyrics and video are very contradicting because the song is called Midnight city however the setting is not a city and it’s not dark enough to be seen as midnight. So I would say it doesn’t follow either illustrative or amplifying and contradicts. This video does match the convention of cutting to the beat of the song as we can see it changes camera shot with every different type of beat we hear.
I think the best micro element they used was their editing as they used some creative ways to make the video more entertaining. For example when we see the boy being knocked out it fades to a white flash and then the next shot rather than a straight cut. The white fade adds a sense of tension because you think what’s happening and also it helps you to then understand that he has been knocked out. The transition is a more creative way of showing time has passed and it makes the flow of your video a lot faster and fluent. Another technique that is used to show time has passed is the time lapse used which is simply setting a camera up then recording for a hound and speeding it up in the edit however if done well it will see the light changing and it is a creative technique that will keep the audience attracted rather than the alternative boring cuts. This video uses a lot of cuts to cut in time with the beat however the cuts are always on time and change to a different shot that doesn't juxtaposes the last shot. If they used creative transitions all the time it would become repetitive so the fact they only used a few made it good and executed well. They added a few filters such as the different colour lens, which make everything, look red. This combined with the distorted camera effect go well to add to the story of the guy getting knocked out. This matched with a POV camera shot keeps it interesting which is the aim with the video as it shows the audience in a characters shoe.
The mise en scene of the video is very well done and prepared as they have a location that looks very unique however i don't personally understand the meaning behind it other than the fact they want to have a party in the middle of nowehere. i felt like that didn' have any relevance also it was matched weirdly by the people wearing animal masks dancing which to me just stood out as weird. The lighting was high key as they shot a lot of their video from low angles with a lot of head space where the natural light of the sun was very high key. Another aspect that was done well was the use of props such as the gun the man uses to knock the kid out, it looked very real which i would say makes the video look better. The man who had the gun also had a costume to make him look like some sort of vigilante which was done well with the cargo jacket. There was very few parts when lip syncing was used however that was because of song choice but when they did use lip syncing it was very clear and you could see what they were trying to say.
You can tell with the cinematography they tried to be creative by using a range of different techniques and angles. Techniques such as the 360 pan shot showing the whole scenery is used to set the setting and is more creative than 4 differnt shots showing a different direction. Low angles have been used in a creative way that show the sun glaring at the camera making a effect in the top corner behind the persons head keeping the audience attracted. Because of the amount of different camera shots it mean't they used some shot types and angles more than once however none were used back to back which kept the video fresh and unique.