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MEDIA STUDIES MUS IC V IDEO COU RSEW O RK

Music video analysis

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MEDIA S

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While I am not a fan of chart music I think that making a music video for a pop song would be a lot easier than making a video for a different genre of music, because of how well-established the conventions of a pop video are, while most music videos I have seen for more alternative music have been experimental and unique, so I am not sure that there are a defined set of established conventions for alternative music videos. I will be analysing different music videos from all different genres to create a pitch for my music video.

“SOMETHING” BY THE BEATLES

This music video is just made up of shots of the members of the Beatles and their wives/girlfriends. It is a simple and quite literal interpretation of what the song is about in the way that what we are seeing is three minutes of couples having fun and lyrics of the song are about love. Because of how simple this video is there probably isn’t really much that can be said about it but I like it for it’s simplicity. The only convention on display in this video is the use of editing in time with the music – at one point in the song the video changes with each beat, at another point by tilting the camera towards the sun the frame is flooded with lens flare and sunlight in time with the build up to the song’s chorus.

“I KNOW WHAT LOVE ISN’T” BY JENS LEKMAN

Jens Lekman is a Swedish musician who makes pop music in the style of bands like The Smiths and Prefab Sprout (not like the music in the charts now). This music video was filmed all in one take, which highlights the importance of everyone involved doing their jobs correctly, so is fairly impressive even as a piece of filmmaking on its own. Filmed on a handheld camera, this video starts with a close up of Jens Lekman’s shoulders and tracks backwards to reveal the backing band playing with him when the chorus begins. Shot against a white background with all musicians wearing black or grey clothing, I think this video is very nice to look at, at a glance you may even mistake it for being in black and white. At one point in the song Jens mouths the lyrics to the song incorrectly, and while this appears to be a mistake, on commenter on the video suggested that this was a metaphor for Jens’ inability stick to a lie, which is what he is singing about when he appears to forget the words to the song. I think that this theory is very interesting and while the truth is probably that he did just forget his lines, the idea of using metaphorical imagery in a music video to tie in with the song’s theme is very interesting to me.

“UNTIL THE QUIET COMES” BY FLYING LOTUS

This short film by Kahlil Joseph uses three tracks from Flying Lotus’ upcoming album “Until the Quiet Comes”, and is designed to promote the whole album rather than just the single. Shot on 35mm film in Los Angeles, this video has received a lot of positive praise from critics, fans and other musicians alike for its abstract but beautiful cinematography as much as it has been praised for the music itself. It has been described as “Beautiful! Breathtaking!”, “Artistic and clever”, “Visually stunning” and “Pure surrealism” by YouTube commenters. The film’s mysterious ambiguity encourages commenters to share their opinions on what the video is supposed to represent. In under four minutes the film tackles subjects such as family, religion, death, revenge, and the afterlife, without ever using dialogue. I like this music video so much because it does not use sound apart from the music itself, and focusses purely on stunning imagery to tell its story.

“STREET SPIRIT (FADE OUT)” BY RADIOHEAD

A lot of music videos will implement a simple gimmick to keep viewers entertained while watching. This black and white music video directed by Jonathan Glazer for the band Radiohead uses what I assume is split screen photography to create an interesting effect that allows the band members to appear within the same world but for them to be shot at different speeds. In one shot (pictured) the frontman Thom Yorke appears to swing a branch along the ground at normal speed, while a replica of him jumps over the branch in slow motion. In another shot one band member (shot at normal speed) watches another band member jump in the air through slow motion. What is happening on screen doesn’t have any relevance to the song but it is just fairly entertaining and nice to look at.

MY VIDEO

I have decided that my music video is going to be for a song by Swedish pop musician Jens Lekman. The song I choose to make a music video for will ultimately depend on who I get in my group but as Jens Lekman has quite a distinct musical style, the music video will be similar for whichever song I choose by him. As most of his songs revolve around stories about things that have happened to him in his life, I would like to essentially use his lyrics as a script and build the video out from there. I think it would be interesting if the music video was made from one long tracking shot of a central character who would be acting out what is being said on screen, but to keep the video quick (and also to allow for mistakes) the video would jump cut through the shot. This idea is mainly inspired by the music video for “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend.

“OXFORD COMMA” BY VAMPIRE WEEKEND

This music video tells a story with the band members playing the different characters. The music video is made up of just one long shot that tracks sideways from the left to right, with the camera’s progress from the left side of the set to the right representing the time passing. This music video (as well as the characters, stories and imagery of Jens Lekman’s music) will be a template for me to use as an inspiration for when I make my video, the big difference being that I will probably lose the one-shot approach to allow myself to film in different locations (as Jens Lekman’s songs frequently jump from situation to situation), but will probably keep the idea of the track left as a way of showing time passing.