Experimenting with videos

Stop Motion (aka 'Stop Frame) Animation - a series of photos played consecutively, giving the illusion of movement - as depicted beautifully in our Jelly Baby music video for 'Don't Feel Like Dancing' by The Scissor Sisters! Stop Motion is when a sequence of images (either photographs or drawings etc) are shown in quick succession - usually around 15 frames per second - giving the illusion of movement. This technique is favoured by Aardman, the creators of Wallace and Gromit, Flushed Away, Chicken Run and many other shows/films, who use this technique to bring "life" to clay figures.

We did an activity in lesson experimenting with Green Screen and Lip-Syncing, these are the results!
Lip syncing is just miming to the lyrics, then overlaying the music track during editing to get rid of any background noise.
Green screen is, on its most basic level, making the background a single colour using a screen, which makes it easier to change the background. This means you can create the illusion of your subject being absolutely anywhere. Videos can then be layered on top of each other, allowing one person to be in shot multiple times at once! It's called green screening only because green is the best colour to use for the background.




I like the format of this music video, pretending it's the trailer for a corny, high-school teen movie whilst still portraying a message (being different doesn't mean you aren't as good as everyone else). However, the story-line of the video is only very loosely linked to the lyrics of the actual song.
Another thing I like about the video is the way it shows near equal amounts of the band playing the song and the narrative (which stars the band). This was when the band was a lot less mainstream than they are now, so showing the band playing helps new listeners/viewers get a proper introduction to the band.


This video displays great use of a combination of live action and cartoon animation - done using green-screen!


Literally interprets the lyrics, in particular the lyrics: 'Stacy, do you remember when I mowed your lawn? (mowed your lawn)/Your mom came out with just a towel on (towel on)'. As seen in the thumbnail (before you click play), you can see a clever use of Green screen, in which they super-empose the singers image on to the reflection in the characters shades.


Uses Vox Pops with a mixture of people found on the street/street performers and celebrities.
 This is a good technique (to use the variety of celebrities), as it means they can put their names in the credits and as a result, this video may turn up when you search their names online - bringing additional audience to the songwriters - Nickelback.


This video has a really surreal use of green screen: the camera pans around the centre of the room, focussing on the people in the middle, who warp and morph from one person to another. The colours are strange - making a huge contrast between light and dark, bright and dull. This makes the atmosphere of the video quite sinister almost - as if something isn't reight about the surroundings. This matches with the lyrics of the song, which states how this one neighbourhood has ruined so many lives. The people in the middle shows a variety of characters who arew so strange, unique and slightly messed up in their own special way - emphasised by the constant morphing and changing.