Video Mood Board

These are some shots from live performances that i thought were pretty good and would consider using in my music video.

Video Analysis 2: Best of you, Foo Fighters

My second video analysis is of the Foo Fighters hit song 'Best of you'. The video was directed by Mark Pellington, who was the one that chose the theme of the video and not the Foo Fighters. The genre of the music is rock and this is expressed across the video with the band performing live on an abandoned hospital. The main characteristic of the video is dealing with the pains in life and making sure you make the most of this by doing your best in it.
The first 44 seconds of this video is just a close up on the microphone with Dave Grohl (the lead singer) leaning in and out of the shot singing the opening verse and first chorus. This is very rare for any music video to be like this but the tempo of the music is slow and the lyrics are the main feature of this opening sequence. The video does have some shots of imagery that represent the vocals of the song. The shots involve two young children playing, a car crash, a lion hunting, a snake attack, a zebra kicking a zebra, a snarling wolf, crash test dummies in a car crash and men and women showing affection for one another. All these shots helps to add a representation to the video that it is based around nature, youth, love and death. I feel that the video is amplifying the effect of death through nature and that you should give your all before you die.
The video does start off very slowly but when the pace of the song picks up we start to see more shots in the video. The video does cut to the drum beat but some of the shots are so quick that they don't stay within the beat but the effect still works as the lyrics are represented outside the beat. After 47 seconds the whole band start to play and this is when the shots become short and there are far more unlike the opening 47 seconds where it's just Dave Grohl singing into the microphone.
The performance of the band shows extreme passion as they are all giving there all in this performance. The record company could be looking at selling this record through the passionate performance of the band as it would shows their fans they are very passionate about this song which could lead fans to share the same feeling. The filming of the bands performance is with a handheld camera which helps to add the effect to the viewer that they are closer to the band. This is seen in most performances in music videos as a static shot doesn't give the same effect as a handheld shot because if you were at a live gig of the artist you would be moving around and not standing still.
One thing i noticed about the Foo Fighters is that they always wear jeans and a t-shirt along with trainers. This is a very casual look for a band but one that is common amongst most rock bands. However the difference between this video and all their other video's is that they are all wearing black as if their mourning. However after researching the video i discovered that the director of the video had seen his wife die a few months prior to filming. This is the reason why mourning and death are very common in this video.
Overall this music video is based around a performance by the Foo Fighters with some imagery seen in short cuts within the music video. The shots of the live performance are all handheld but the shots are cut very quickly so that we can get a view of the whole band very quickly. This video to me is all about the passionate performance given by the band and this would have been made to be this way by the director. From this video i have learnt that you have to show the band up close and personal to get a better effect, this is something i plan to do in my groups music video. This is the video by Foo Fighters for 'Best of You':

Video Analysis 1: Wonderwall, Oasis

Wonderwall is a multi-million selling record by British Rock group Oasis. The song and video were released in October 1996 as part of their multi-platinum selling album 'What's the Story, Morning Glory?'. The song was written by lead guitarist of the band Noel Gallagher and he claims the song is about 'an imaginary friend who is coming to save you from yourself'. The video has members of the band playing their instruments throughout the video to help show the viewer that this genre is rock. This is video is a personal favourite of mine and is in black and white all the way through. It also went on to win the Best Video Award at the 1996 Brit Awards.
The relationship between lyrics and visuals is very weak. The first sign on lyrics to visual representation is at 1:24 in the video where the lead singer Liam Gallagher sings "and all the roads we have to walk are winding", at this point Liam is sitting in a chair just as if its unwinding which shows a brief correlation with the lyrics. The next brief part of the video where the lyrics are expressed with visuals is at 2:40 of the music video. At this point Liam sings "and all the lights that light the way are blinding", at which stage their is a close up on Liam with the contrast changing quickly from black the white. These are the only parts where the lyrics and visuals have a direct relationship which is strange as the video has no real direct reference to the lyrics of the song, and this can be seen throughout the video.
I feel their is a strong relationship between the music and the visuals which would be a reason for why the lyrics and the visuals have a weak relationship. The video is cut in paces depending on the beat. At the beginning where Noel Gallagher is playing the opening of the song whilst sitting on a chair, the video cuts closer to him whilst keeping in time with the music he's playing. During the video this happens several time and the video also cuts around the drum beat as well. An example of this would be at 2:40 when a close up on Liam sees the gradient change in time with the drum beat. The pace of the song is consistent throughout the video with some shots of the video being spilt into 4 and 12 sections sometimes with the same image and sometimes with different images. The relationship between the music and visuals is why this video is as good as it is, because it shows you don't need to narrate the lyrics in a video to put your point across.
The clothes that the artists are wearing is very common to what they normally wear in their music videos which are jeans, shirts and jumpers. These common types of clothing may be to make the artists more relatable as their not exactly clothes ordinary people wear. One other similarity is the glasses the lead singer is wearing which are a pair of rounded dark shade glasses which are very common in their videos. This could be considered a statement as their inspiration John Lennon used to wear a pair the same. These glasses were in Oasis's next music video, Don't Look Back in Anger, and previous Oasis music video's such as Supersonic. Below shows 4 screenshots of 4 different videos of where the glasses in wonderwall can be seen again.

This music video isn't very narrative and i would say the majority of it is performance based as you can see either someone singing or playing an instrument on several occasions throughout the video.

Overall i think this is a great music video with a lot of the reason being the editing of it. The video does use the beat of the song to change shots but sometimes it will just change during a note. What impressed me most was how well the contrast worked as their was no colour except for the change in guitar colour throughout the video which may just be their to add extra emphasis on that instrument. The camera positions were also very ordinary but the way the people and mise-en-scene was used helped to add an extra dimension to this video. I feel that the video was shot very ordinarily but editing so well it helped make the music video a success. Below is the music video by Oasis called Wonderwall:

Lyric Analysis 2- Frank Turner, Photosynthesis

1,2,1,2,3,4

Well I guess I should confess that I am starting to get old
All the latest music fads all passed me by and left me cold
All the kids are talking slang I won't pretend to understand
All my friends are getting married, mortagages and pension plans
And it's obvious my angry adolescent days are done
And I'm happy and I'm settled in the person I've become
But that doesn't mean I'm settled up and sitting out the game
Time may change alot but some things may stay the same

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I yeah I won't grow up

Oh maturity's a wrapped up package deal so it seems
And ditching teenage fantasy means ditching all your dreams
All your friends and peers and family solomnly tell you you will
Have to grow up be an adult yeah be bored and unfulfilled
Oh when no ones yet explained to me exactly what's so great
About slaving 50 years away on something that you hate, about meekly shuffling down the path of mediocrity
Well if that's your road then take it but it's not the road for me

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I yeah I won't grow up

And if all you ever do with your life
Is photosynthesize
Then you deserve every hour of these sleepless nights
That you spend wondering when you're gonna die

Now I'll play and you sing
The perfect way for the evening to begin
Now I'll play and you sing
The perfect way for the evening to begin

And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all yeah I won't grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up
And I won't sit down
And I won't shut up
And most of all I will not grow up

Lyrically this song was the song i liked best and it was also the song that i could gather the most ideas for a video of. Not only did i have this connection with this song but i think my other group members also thought this with themselves as we all unanimously chose this song. The song itself is quite upbeat which meant we could plan the tone of the music video to be happy. The lyrics have reference to Frank Turner watching himself and his friends grow old while the chorus seems to show his willingness to stay young. I felt the song didn't necessarily tell a story like some of the other songs in our shortlist but was far more general which meant we could have more idea's available. Although the song's tone is happy fast paced song the nearer the end you get the faster the song gets.

The song focus's on one man's summarising his feeling's about being an adult and missing his youthful days. The message that i get from this song is that Frank Turner wants to relive his younger days and one way to show this in a music vide would be to re-enact those days. There is one line in the chorus that says to me that Frank doesn't want to grow older and doesn't care if he acts as a child as the final line in each chorus and the final line of the song is 'and most of all i will not grow up'. I feel that this single line does give a representation for the whole song and we would be foolish not to exploit this in our music video.

I am really looking forward to making this song into a music video and as we are going to start our original filming tomorrow, we had some new fantastic idea's today which we hope to film even though we haven't got it in our planning. At the moment we have story-boarded our ideas which will be put on my blog in the future. We have also got sheets of other idea's some we are going to use and some we aren't. These will also be put onto my blog at a later date as they are very untidy at the moment.

Lyric Analysis 1- Frank Turner, The Real Damage

Frank Turner- The Real Damage

I woke up on a sofa in an unfamiliar house,
Surrounded by sleeping folks that I didn't know.
On failing to find my friends, I decided that it was
clearly time to go.
So I made my way out of the door as quietly as I could
–
There was no one there I knew to say goodbye –
Squinting in the sadly sobering sunshine of the Sunday
morning light.

I started the night with all my friends and I ended up
alone,
Oh yes I started out so happy now I'm hung-over and
down.
It was about then that I realized I was half-way
through
The best years of my life.

So I scanned the local landmarks, trying to find out
where I was,
And maybe even find a bus back home.
I was longing for a shower, and for clean sheets, and
a charger for my phone.
And suddenly it hit me that I got paid this Friday
last
And so I rifled through my pockets for some change.
But all I found was a packet of broken cigarettes and
sinking sense of shame.

I had to ask myself, well,
Is it really worth it?
Is any of this worth it?
Well the whole thing's far from perfect,
But I've yet to figure out a better way to spend my
time.

Too many suits and dirty looks made me rack my
brains,
And the real damage started to sink in.
It'd been quite a heavy weekend, but I could just
about remember where I'd been.

I stood on a street corner, and I felt a little sick.
It was about then that I realized I was half-way
through
The first day of the week.

This is the first Frank Turner song on our final three and the overall feel from these lyrics is a sense of regret. The lyrics tell a story of waking up after a party hungover and alone. These lyrics are important to the song as it sets the feel for the rest of the lyrics because we already know that the song is about his loneliness. 'The Real damage' is meant to be pyscological damage rather than physical. The lyrics also show he is remebering these years as the best years of his life.

In terms of making a video out of this song would have been very testing. The main theme of the song is a man hungover, feeling down and reviewing his life but this would have been difficult to express this in a video. Lyrically this song is too much of a story than a representation which is what we were looking for in making our music video. Our original ideas were dismissed as they were to narrative to the song.

Researching Music Videos

These are 4 music videos that I thought were very good and hopefully would give me and the rest of my group inspiration for our video.

The video above is an amateur video that quickly became a video sensation thanks to YouTube. It is a video for Ok Go- Here it goes again which has seen many other people try to re-create the video due to its extreme popularity. The reason I like this video is its co-ordination with their movement with the beat is just incredible which eventually led this video becoming the official video of this song.

This video is by The Enemy and the song is called away from here. The reason I like this video is that the editing between the performance and other narrative is quick and well-timed. Furthermore I really like the handheld shots of the band performing as it makes me feel like I was right their with them performing. An up-close and personally feel to this video is also another reason why I like this video alot.

The song is by Oasis and it is one of the well known track, wonderwall. I really like this video as it matches the mood of the song through its smooth editing and its humble footage. The effects look simple and the performance from the band is calm and tame. I will also analysis the video at a later date.

The final video that I also found very inspiring was Bon Jovi's, its my life. The reason I really like this video is through the pace it offers. The song is a fairly quick tempo but the video makes it faster as he runs to get to the gig. The footage of the band isn't why I like this but the quirky narrative and time perfect editing helps to make this video one of my favorites.