Tuesday 30 September 2014

Favourite Video

This is one of my favourite music videos and it is The 1975- Robbers, directed by Tim Mattia. Although it is a very recent video, I really enjoy watching it due to its narrative especially. I think the acting from the lead singer 'Matthew Healy' and the woman in the video, model 'Chelsea Schuhman' is superb and I can feel that there is a real connection between the pair in the video.
The video is about Matty and Chelsea who are lovers, who rob a shop to obtain money to fund their alcohol and drug addiction. The video shows how the drugs and alcohol sometimes affect Matty in the wrong way and he becomes tempered at times, but despite this, the love shown between the two overcomes the side effects. Near to the end of the song, when the pair go to rob the shop, Matty is shot and is instantly taken back outside by his lover to a van, driven by the rest of the band. He is being treated in the back whilst still doing drugs and the part I like about this is that the camera shows different points of the video that we had seen at the beginning which helps to explain the situation that is happening. For example, there is a blooded handprint shown on the side of their home near the beginning is re-shown when Matty is being taken back into the home and his blooded hand creates the handprint after he has been shot. This is a great use of foreshadowing in my opinion.  

Monday 29 September 2014

History of the Music Video

History of the Music Video

The purpose of a music video is to tell a story of a piece of music through the use of visual images produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Music videos started as just small clips called "talkies" which people went to watch at the cinema. After these came about, there began to be a lot more of songs that had music videos to go with them. This included Walt Disney releasing "Fantasia" in 1940 which was an animated film based around famous pieces of classical music.

Many big singers created their own music centred films including Elvis Presley in "Rock around the Clock." The main music video that came out that inspired others to start making their own, and also setting the tone of what a modern music video should be was in 1975 when Queen released "Bohemian Rhapsody". This was seen as such an iconic music video because it was the first to use advanced technology and featured both live performance and when they used the advanced technology it was to import a video of Freddie Mercury's face singing to fade in and out during the video.
Music videos became more mainstream in1981 when MTV aired "Video killed the radio star" and the began an era of 24 hour music on television. This was followed by people such as Michael Jackson creating a new era of creating a short film as a music video as he did with "Billie Jean" but in 1984 is when he had really taken this idea to the next level when he released a video for "Thriller.



Andrew Goodwin's Theory+ How it is used in Jay-Z's "99 Problems" music video

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

  1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. dance routine for boy/girl band).
  2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
  3. There is a relationship between music and visuals.
  4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work.
  5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc.) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
  6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc.) 
Goodwin's theory suggests that the lyrics in a song constantly make references to the visuals on the screen as they reinforce what the lyrics say. Genre and characteristics are mentioned in Goodwin's theory, and these are depicted as the certain traits associated with a particular music genre. For example, in a rock video you will expect to see a live performance of the band playing, along with the characteristics being a lot of black clothing, long hair, boots and other smaller things such as tattoos. Along with the genre characteristics, there is also music videos being narrative based. This means that aswell as what the artist/band is wearing and doing in the music video, the narrative brings the whole video together and explains the story of the music video which is especially important for the audience so that they understand what is happening.
 
Goodwin's theory can be applied to some artists music videos such as Jay-Z's "99 Problems".

Firstly, we can tell from the costumes that he wears throughout the video that it fits well into the hip hop/rap genre of music as he is wearing baggy jeans, chains, baggy jacket, cap along with hoodies which shows us his "gangsta" way of life.

The video has many ways of showing the "gangsta" way of life as it has things like a dark run down setting (Brooklyn, New York), rough looking areas, dog fighting, women showing their sex appeal and also large gangs of people wearing the "gangsta" like clothing hanging around the streets looking troublesome which sums up the whole point of the music genre.

Within the music video, there is a strong relationship with the visuals and the lyrics. This is shown when the word "bitch" occurs and several women are shown that are dressed provocatively throughout the video which again shows that it is set in a rough area as the women are shown to be slutty for the men. Another example of the relationship between visuals and lyrics being shown is when Jay-Z says "Talk to the Lord", and with this being said a clip of Jesus on a Crucifix statue is seen.

In the video, different shots are used to connote different things such as when Jay-Z and Rick Rubin are in the car after being pulled over by the police, the police officer comes to the window and begins to talk to the pair. With this, the police officer is always being shown as higher up than Jay-Z using both low angles and high angles to show this. This shows that the white police officer is high in power and authority compared to Jay-z who is black and shown to be a troublemaker due to him being pulled over by the police. Another example of this is at the very beginning of the video when the camera is going up the stairs and onto the streets of Brooklyn, this shows that the people of that area are at the bottom in life due to the roughness of their city. The walking up the stairs shows how Jay-Z has slowly became bigger in life.
 








Saturday 20 September 2014

Brief

For this course I will be researching, planning  and constructing a music video for an existing song that was produced at least 5 years ago. For this I will have to create my own artist/band, and then create them so that it is as though they are actually a hit artist/band that is in the charts. We will have to choose a genre for our artist/band and then look at other existing bands and artists who we want our own artist or band to be like. We will have to create our own music video from scratch, using our own ideas, narrative, shots and also editing the actual video.

Friday 19 September 2014

Music Video Director... Tim Mattia

Tim Mattia is a music video director who has been the head of many large and small music videos such as Trampoline-Tinie Tempah ft. 2 Chainz, Hey Cruel World- Marilyn Manson and also for Robbers- The 1975. I decided to research in to Mattia due to his work for the song "Robbers" by The 1975 which I have also researched as my favourite music video. He is also well known for his photography that he uses whilst shooting some music videos which I think look really cool and have the same kind of feel throughout them all, for example the use of keeping the pictures in Black and White.































His work has been seen on many different TV stations including MTV, MTV2, THE BOX, VH1, 4MUSIC, NMETV, THE HITS, KERRANG TV, Q MUSIC, CHANNEL 4 AND ROCKSOUND TV. As well as this, his work has also featured in print media such as WALLPAPER, MARIE CLAIRE, NME, KERRANG, ARTROCKER, UNCUT, Q, ROCKSOUND, LOOK, THE HUFFINGTON POST, TIME, THE SUN, LOUDWIRE, REVOLVER, PEREZ HILTON, METAL HAMMER AND THE DAILY MAIL. By working with all of these well known publishers and companies shows how his work is well known and also well thought of due to the high demand for his services, he had even been quoted by website 'One Percent Jihad' to of " making “Robbers” look “We Found Love”-level unpleasant" which could be seen as a huge compliment for some due to Rihanna being much bigger and more well known around compared to The 1975.


I believe that Mattia is a great music video director who can work with pretty much any kind of genre of music without failure (As shown by the list of artists below). He has also inspired me for when I create my own music video by using different types of shots and styles that he has used in his own work.

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Favourite Video... The 1975- "Robbers"

Although being a music video that has only recently come out, I feel that this music video is in fact my favourite. This could be down the fact that it is my favourite song from their album but it is also because I love the whole storyline and how it uses some foreshadowing in the early stages of the video. It shows very realistic emotions from the actors in the video and I feel a connection when watching it.

The video is all about the lead singer of The 1975 "Matt Healy" and his relationship with Chelsea Schuchman. The video is heavily inspired by the 1933 film "True Romance", especially the character Alabama Whitman. In the video, Matty and Chelsea attempt to rob a store with the outcome not being as expected, whilst working around their love-hate relationship which is filled with continuous alcohol drinking, drug taking and sex. The drink, drugs and sex become such a huge part of the relationship that even once Matty had been shot during the attempted store robbery and they have to get home to try and save him, the pair both begin smoking drugs and begin to passionately kiss despite the casualty.

The indie rock genre which The 1975 have taken up is shown in this music video mainly through the costumes in which the actors are wearing. Matty is wearing black, ripped skinny jeans and a floral shirt which is showing off his many different indie type tattoos. This adds to his haircut which I believe to be the style for people who enjoy listening to indie rock music with long hair, whether it be all over or short on the sides and longer on top.

This video inspired me to want to originally use this song for creating my own music video, but despite my desperation for using the song there was some restrictions which prevented me from being able to actually use it.