Previous Music Videos (The Good, The Bad and The Average)

Previous Music Videos:
GOOD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY-0mXKOY1s&feature=related

This music video has a great audio-visual match. The miming of the instruments is realistic, and they don't just mime playing, they perform - making a much more interesting visual experience. The acting was also good.
The editing was absolutely fantastic, with a great use of overlapping images and super-imposed images. The cuts are also well timed with the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHHL39JmbWs&feature=related

Really sinister-looking mise-en-scenes in the opening shots - although unrelated to the song, the tangled branches already make it slightly creepy.
The acting isn't as good as it could be, but it's not half-arsed - and the use of make-up and gratuitous gore is great.
I also particularly liked the use of strobe lighting (around a minute in), and the final scene was cleverly done to give the effect of the bath water fading red.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aFWrhZpx_M&feature=related

fantastic syncronisation between the drumbeat and the change of shots, and likewise with the lip-syncing. The performance, make-up, costume and set are incredibly clear, absolutely superb - within moments you can see she's a mental patient at a hospital; the shots of her in a red dress is her delusional imagining of herself; the shots of her in school is a flashback of what sent her mad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2zrRi06Rb0

This video makes great use of Green Screening and quick editing really well synchronised editing and playing. It also makes good use of CGI in the beginning, setting the scene and introducing the song and special effects.
At one point, it even puts the song in the background - drawing attention away from the song and towards the 'narrative'.

AVERAGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3rjif0RCmc&feature=related

This video follows the narrative of the song quite literally. The editing is quite good, but perhaps a little slow for such an upbeat, high-tempo song. Although the acting really suits the tone of the song and the narrative, the lip-synching often goes out of time and the singer does look a bit reserved and shy in places - understandable, but it does look a bit naff.


BAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjiqKLfsco&feature=related

Although mimed instruments is a good idea: fun, original, quirky - it's badly executed - even in the first 10 seconds, the drummer is seen completely out of time. The 'green screen' doesn't work either - they could have changed it to anything, or used it as a completely matte background, but instead they left it as it was, and it didn't even cover the whole background.
However, the narrative area of the film is alright, the acting is very corny and the editing is good, if a tad slow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7yWB_DI6tE
Unfortunately, this video has been changed so that it cannot be embedded, however this video is a prime example of how bad a music video can be. The acting is dreadful (although you can't fault them on enthusiasm), the instruments are obviously being mimed and the shots are way, way, way too long for such a fast-paced, upbeat song.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxhqaiAyZvI&feature=related

The editing is way too slow for such an upbeat and fun song. The person singing is in time, but it still doesn't look right. On the upside, the narrative is relatively clear, but the acting is terrible!!

A Brief History of Music Videos

Analysis of a Music Video

By The Way - Analysis of the Music Video

View more PowerPoint from SixFootSteve

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.