ABBA - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie
Josh Parker
Alex Palmer
Reece Selvadorai
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Task 1 - Purpose of Music Videos
Brief History of the Genre
Music videos transformed the music business in the early 1980s. Making a visual recording of an artist performing on a video cassette meant that a small package containing the video could be sent to TV stations around the world and the artist could then be seen by millions of people everywhere within days of releasing a record.
The term ‘music video’ first became popular in the early 1980’s, but promotional music films had been around for a lot longer. Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is often though of as the first “modern” promotional film clip, although originally it was shot as the opening part of a documentary about his 1965 tour of England.
Back in the 1960's a number of experiments with promotional short films began. Bands which experimented with this were the likes of The Animals, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The ability to show short films of their latest releases meant that the band themselves did not have to perform the track. Therefore the appeal of the bands grew further. The Beatle’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” promotional film was especially important, it featured reverse film effects, stop motion animation, jump-cuts from daytime to night-time, and the band playing and later pouring paint over an upright piano. It was selected by the New York Museum of Modern Art as one of the most influential music videos in the late 1960s, along with another Beatle’s track, “Penny Lane”. By releasing these films bands could easily be seen all over the world, which a major part of the global phenomenon that the Beatles bacame in the 1960's.
In the 1970's more bands started making music videos – bands such as, Queen, David Bowie, The Jackson Five, Roxy Music, ABBA. In particular Queen’s video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was considered groundbreaking, and is often said to have helped establish the “visual language” of the modern music video, and helped make it the third highest selling UK song ever.
In the 1980s music videos grew in numbers due to the launch of MTV in 1981, so there was a real demand to create music videos so that acts could be heard globally. However it was mainly British acts creating the videos for broadcast. Hence the massive “Brit invasion” of the US charts in the 1980's.
Music videos are for the artists preferred target audiences within the general public. Each artist whether solo or group have their own genres, for example "pop" and "rock" are two of the biggest genres in the music industry therefore getting the larger target audiences. By seeing an artists video potential fans can get an idea of that bands image and begin to relate to them more strongly. However music videos are not purely just for entertainment reasons there is a lot more to it. Artists are constantly competing against one another to reach out to as many of us as possible. So in releasing a music video they are intending to promote their albums and tracks. Most artists normally only used 3 or 4 songs off one album to shoot videos, this will illustrate to the viewers what the album has to offer. This is to hopefully make people go out and buy their music. They promote the artists by showing the viewers the meanings of the song whether it’s a love song or a song about drugs. Furthermore it gives the viewers a chance to see the artist visually instead of just hearing their instruments and their voices. It also offers a further opportunity for the track to "heard" as radio and the internet are the only other options to get their music out into the open.
Music videos also helps keep the artist in the public eye for as long as possible even months after the album has been released. There are a wide range of outlets for their music video to be seen examples of this are television channels like MTV, VH1, Kerrang, Hits TV, NME. Furthermore there’s the internet which includes Youtube, Vodpod, Videocore. The newest outlet for videos is downloads for ipods, mobile phones, blackberrys.
Videos for songs are often released quite a long time before the track is available to purchase, this helps create interest and hopefully a bigger demand for the song.
The music video may not have been made just for the band as their song may have been used for a soundtrack of a film. So their video may contain clips of the feature film appearing as part of the narrative/performance.
The success of a video can be judged just in terms of increased track sales, but also from the critical reaction to it within the music industry and by the public on sites like Myspace and Youtube.
Music videos transformed the music business in the early 1980s. Making a visual recording of an artist performing on a video cassette meant that a small package containing the video could be sent to TV stations around the world and the artist could then be seen by millions of people everywhere within days of releasing a record.
The term ‘music video’ first became popular in the early 1980’s, but promotional music films had been around for a lot longer. Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is often though of as the first “modern” promotional film clip, although originally it was shot as the opening part of a documentary about his 1965 tour of England.
Back in the 1960's a number of experiments with promotional short films began. Bands which experimented with this were the likes of The Animals, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The ability to show short films of their latest releases meant that the band themselves did not have to perform the track. Therefore the appeal of the bands grew further. The Beatle’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” promotional film was especially important, it featured reverse film effects, stop motion animation, jump-cuts from daytime to night-time, and the band playing and later pouring paint over an upright piano. It was selected by the New York Museum of Modern Art as one of the most influential music videos in the late 1960s, along with another Beatle’s track, “Penny Lane”. By releasing these films bands could easily be seen all over the world, which a major part of the global phenomenon that the Beatles bacame in the 1960's.
In the 1970's more bands started making music videos – bands such as, Queen, David Bowie, The Jackson Five, Roxy Music, ABBA. In particular Queen’s video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” was considered groundbreaking, and is often said to have helped establish the “visual language” of the modern music video, and helped make it the third highest selling UK song ever.
In the 1980s music videos grew in numbers due to the launch of MTV in 1981, so there was a real demand to create music videos so that acts could be heard globally. However it was mainly British acts creating the videos for broadcast. Hence the massive “Brit invasion” of the US charts in the 1980's.
Music videos are for the artists preferred target audiences within the general public. Each artist whether solo or group have their own genres, for example "pop" and "rock" are two of the biggest genres in the music industry therefore getting the larger target audiences. By seeing an artists video potential fans can get an idea of that bands image and begin to relate to them more strongly. However music videos are not purely just for entertainment reasons there is a lot more to it. Artists are constantly competing against one another to reach out to as many of us as possible. So in releasing a music video they are intending to promote their albums and tracks. Most artists normally only used 3 or 4 songs off one album to shoot videos, this will illustrate to the viewers what the album has to offer. This is to hopefully make people go out and buy their music. They promote the artists by showing the viewers the meanings of the song whether it’s a love song or a song about drugs. Furthermore it gives the viewers a chance to see the artist visually instead of just hearing their instruments and their voices. It also offers a further opportunity for the track to "heard" as radio and the internet are the only other options to get their music out into the open.
Music videos also helps keep the artist in the public eye for as long as possible even months after the album has been released. There are a wide range of outlets for their music video to be seen examples of this are television channels like MTV, VH1, Kerrang, Hits TV, NME. Furthermore there’s the internet which includes Youtube, Vodpod, Videocore. The newest outlet for videos is downloads for ipods, mobile phones, blackberrys.
Videos for songs are often released quite a long time before the track is available to purchase, this helps create interest and hopefully a bigger demand for the song.
The music video may not have been made just for the band as their song may have been used for a soundtrack of a film. So their video may contain clips of the feature film appearing as part of the narrative/performance.
The success of a video can be judged just in terms of increased track sales, but also from the critical reaction to it within the music industry and by the public on sites like Myspace and Youtube.
Task 2 - Contemporary Music Video Research
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
This song was the first single from the band’s third album "There Is Nothing Left To Lose", on the labels "Roswell" and "RCA Records". The song itself was released on two different singles in the UK in October 18 1999. The video for the song was directed by Jesse Peretz and produced by Tina Nakane. The video also received a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 2001.
This music video is a synergy of the song (Learn to Fly) and a parody of the comedy film "Airplane!" – there is intertextuality in the way the video ‘borrows’ many elements of the ‘airplane disaster’ genre of film (which Airplane! itself is parodying)
Mise-en-scene in the video is all linking heavily to the film. The main one is the fact that the video was shot on a simulator used for training flight cabin crews, so it exactly matches a real one with seats, cockpit, kitchen and TVs. Also there is a wide range of costumes used by throughout the video.
You probably couldn't find a stronger link between the lyrics and the visuals in any other music video. As the song is named learn to fly and the during the durations of the flight it slowly builds up to the conclusion of the band having to learn how to fly the plane
The video begins with the actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass working in kitchen where they hurriedly hide a package containing ‘erotic’ sleeping powder when the flight attendant (Dave Grohl) comes in. In the background is a ‘muzak’ version of ‘Evelong’ one of band’s earlier songs. At 0.31 the Learn to Fly riff comes in and we see the band dressed as pilots sitting in the cockpit. Passengers begin to get on the plane (mostly played by the band members) including the use of ‘fat suits’ at 0.38. At 1.14 we first see concert footage of the band, shown on the cabin’s TV. At 1.51 the storyline develops with the cabin staff preparing coffee, not realising that the drug package is in the coffee maker. At 2.08 a clip of the band (from above) showing the drummer switches to a fan (played by Grohl) tapping the real Grohl on the shoulder – this is in time with the last 2 drum beats. At 2.32 the cabin crew begin serving the ‘drugged’ coffee to all of the crew and passengers, except the ‘real’ band members, who already have alcohol. The video continues switching between concert footage on the cabin screen and the humorous effects of the drugs on cabin and crew. At 3.03 the concert footage shows Grohl crowd surfing with arms outstretched (like a plane) and at 3.53 he twirls his mic stand like a propeller. The concert clips appear to have been specially filmed as there are so many different shots from angles that ‘conveniently’ fit with the rest of the video. At 3.13 the camera begins to tilt from side to side rapidly to show that the drugged pilots are losing control of the plane. At 4.01 the ‘real’ band take control of the plane, using a manual titled ‘Learn to Fly’. The video ends with Black & Gass being arrested with ‘Evelong’ muzak in the background again.
In the music video there were quite a few editing and visual effects, the first visual effect is at 3.22 this in when the pilot is seeing one of the flight attendants (Grohl) flying along side the plane which is followed by the fat woman seeing someone’s head turn into a ham burger at 3.27. The uses of cinematography consists in the lights being kept the same brightness through out in the cock pit and also the main seating area of the plane. Furthermore there were a couple interesting shots for example there was a lot of over shoulder shots and close ups with the occasional 2 shot and 3 shot..
The video fits into the rock genre when the video it cuts to the Foo Fighters playing a live concert with all there rock associated equipment for example guitars and drum kit, but the other content (e.g. dressing up in women’s clothes doesn’t really fit the ‘rock’ genre.) The music video is really a story with a strong narrative attending to the piece. The music video promotes the band extremely well as it shows off the bands sense of humour that they put into mostly all of there videos and have become well known for. The music video is aimed at young adults who are into this genre of music and videos with a humorous nature. This is confirmed by looking at commetnts on Youtube, where most people are talking about the humour in the video - "This vid is hilarious", "Always laff when I watch this vid", "Dave is so funny as a gay". This perhaps shows that while the video can add to people's enjoyment it might also distract them from the song. One person commented that they had "Always thought this song was about Grohl's relationship with God" until they saw the video, so it could be that for this person the video has made the song less meaningful.
The director Jesse Peretz was himself originally a bass player for the band Lemonheads in the late '80s. He began working as a director in the Boston area directing music videos (including for his own band) commercials, and the "Jimmy the Cabdriver" segments for MTV. His best known videos are probably the ones for Foo Fighters – he shot "Big Me",”The One”, “Long Road to Ruin” and “Low”. All of these videos are made in a humorous style, and feature quite clear narratives.
Most of his other videos are for smaller bands, although he did direct the video for “School of Rock” (from the film featuring Jack Black. In 1998, he directed his first feature film “First Love, Last Rites.” In 2007 he directed “The Ex” which is his first film with well known actors, although it received very poor critical reviews.
Bibliography
http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=10883
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learn_to_Fly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Short_Form_Music_Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJS1rmhI6c
http://www.hollywood.com/
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow
“Go With The Flow” was released in 2003 by Queens of the Stone Age from their album “Songs for the Deaf”. At the 46th Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. The music video was made in England by Shynola (a group of visual artists based in London who have worked together on a number of acclaimed music videos) . The video was nominated for the Best Art Direction, and won Best Special Effects at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
The video is shot completely in red, black and white, and features the band travelling through the desert at high speed in a 1960’s pickup truck along with other imagery, most of it of a sexual nature. The video is highly stylised with a very simple narrative of 2 cars racing towards each other.
The main Mise-en-scene feature is the two trucks which are hurtling towards each other down a deserted highway. Other Mise-en-scene such as telegraph poles, cactus plants, phone box with a raven on top and wooden fencing are mainly used for the purpose of highlighting the speed of the vehicles (as they race past) and indicating that they are in a desert. Throughout the video everyday objects are used in a sexually suggestive way. For example at 1.04 after a bikini wearing young woman is first seen draped across a car bonnet raising her leg, a guitar neck is shown rising at the same angle. At 1.20 the woman (enlarged) lies in the road with her legs open and a small car enters between them. At 1.53 the woman holds an oil can up and ‘oil’ squirts on her face. At 2.18 the woman is again shown on the car bonnet with her legs open as a man approaches her and begins to climb on the bonnet, straight after this the two cars meet and ‘merge’ causing a logo of a fork prong to enter a hole made by a coiled snake (the logos are on the 2 car bonnets.) This is followed at 2.35 by a swarm of ‘sperm’ that swim through the desert and cactus.
The video mainly uses sweeping shots which go over and around the truck and constantly highlight the speed of it. The only time that slower sweeps are used is when the woman is featured, although the camera is still moving.
As stated above the video won an award for visual effects. According to Chris Harding (of Shynola) the concept for the video was based on the artwork for the band’s album cover (mostly red and black) and the film Sin City which was released shortly before. The band also spend a lot of time working at a studio in the desert plus the ‘driving’ pace of the track fitted well with the high speed driving of the trucks.
The film took 8 weeks to make from inception. A live action shoot was done near Los Angeles featuring the band performing in the back of the truck as it speeds down a highway. Green screen was then used to add everything else around the truck. According to Harding the final video features a mix of “nurbs cacti, the dancing girls are animated texture sequences on hand placed planes, and the swimming sperm are instanced geometry flowing along curves. The trails of fire and smoke coming from the truck are sprites with animated texture sequences.”
Harding also says that as the video is so stylised because “We designed everything, right down to the logo's on the truck's gear stick. If we hadn't done this, when we came to do the actual work, we wouldn't have known what to do, and there would have been no continuity.” Stylised visual effects feature throughout the video, but especially at the end where there are lots of sweeping images all merging together, such as flowers, wheels, lines, speedometers and lips.
There aren’t many links between the visuals and the lyrics apart from the ‘flow’ of the swimming sperm and at 0.28 the line “she said I throw myself away” matches lead singer (Josh Homme) throwing away a beer can.
The music links to the video through the ‘driving’ speed of the track and the drummer drumming on the truck’s dashboard. Throughout most of the video the cuts are in time with strong drum beats.
The video fits well into the stereotype of the genre of rock as it features speed, fast cars, darkness and half naked women. Most of the comments about the video on sites such as Youtube are quite simplistic but generally positive. Comments such as "Awesome song and video","I can't get enough of this video", although some people give more detailed comments and have clearly thought about the quality of the video - e.g. "I think this is one of the most visually appealling and creative vids of the century so far","The artisitic direction of this video is amazing." There is also a comment that "If you like this stuff you should check my band out" which shows how a good video can inspire others to make music/videos.
Directors Shynola (Chris Harding, Richard "Kenny" Kenworthy, Jason Groves and Gideon Baws). met at art college. They did not originally intend to make music videos (they intended to make animated films) but found music video a good way to”Try out new ideas and get paid for it.” They preferred music videos to doing commercials as they would still have almost total control of their work. They are now very successful and have produced videos for top artists such as Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur. They have also done animation work for adverts (Nike,2002), television (The IT crowd, title sequences, 2006) and film (Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, 2004).
Bibliography
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=1072&page=2
Wikipedia
This song was the first single from the band’s third album "There Is Nothing Left To Lose", on the labels "Roswell" and "RCA Records". The song itself was released on two different singles in the UK in October 18 1999. The video for the song was directed by Jesse Peretz and produced by Tina Nakane. The video also received a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 2001.
This music video is a synergy of the song (Learn to Fly) and a parody of the comedy film "Airplane!" – there is intertextuality in the way the video ‘borrows’ many elements of the ‘airplane disaster’ genre of film (which Airplane! itself is parodying)
Mise-en-scene in the video is all linking heavily to the film. The main one is the fact that the video was shot on a simulator used for training flight cabin crews, so it exactly matches a real one with seats, cockpit, kitchen and TVs. Also there is a wide range of costumes used by throughout the video.
You probably couldn't find a stronger link between the lyrics and the visuals in any other music video. As the song is named learn to fly and the during the durations of the flight it slowly builds up to the conclusion of the band having to learn how to fly the plane
The video begins with the actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass working in kitchen where they hurriedly hide a package containing ‘erotic’ sleeping powder when the flight attendant (Dave Grohl) comes in. In the background is a ‘muzak’ version of ‘Evelong’ one of band’s earlier songs. At 0.31 the Learn to Fly riff comes in and we see the band dressed as pilots sitting in the cockpit. Passengers begin to get on the plane (mostly played by the band members) including the use of ‘fat suits’ at 0.38. At 1.14 we first see concert footage of the band, shown on the cabin’s TV. At 1.51 the storyline develops with the cabin staff preparing coffee, not realising that the drug package is in the coffee maker. At 2.08 a clip of the band (from above) showing the drummer switches to a fan (played by Grohl) tapping the real Grohl on the shoulder – this is in time with the last 2 drum beats. At 2.32 the cabin crew begin serving the ‘drugged’ coffee to all of the crew and passengers, except the ‘real’ band members, who already have alcohol. The video continues switching between concert footage on the cabin screen and the humorous effects of the drugs on cabin and crew. At 3.03 the concert footage shows Grohl crowd surfing with arms outstretched (like a plane) and at 3.53 he twirls his mic stand like a propeller. The concert clips appear to have been specially filmed as there are so many different shots from angles that ‘conveniently’ fit with the rest of the video. At 3.13 the camera begins to tilt from side to side rapidly to show that the drugged pilots are losing control of the plane. At 4.01 the ‘real’ band take control of the plane, using a manual titled ‘Learn to Fly’. The video ends with Black & Gass being arrested with ‘Evelong’ muzak in the background again.
In the music video there were quite a few editing and visual effects, the first visual effect is at 3.22 this in when the pilot is seeing one of the flight attendants (Grohl) flying along side the plane which is followed by the fat woman seeing someone’s head turn into a ham burger at 3.27. The uses of cinematography consists in the lights being kept the same brightness through out in the cock pit and also the main seating area of the plane. Furthermore there were a couple interesting shots for example there was a lot of over shoulder shots and close ups with the occasional 2 shot and 3 shot..
The video fits into the rock genre when the video it cuts to the Foo Fighters playing a live concert with all there rock associated equipment for example guitars and drum kit, but the other content (e.g. dressing up in women’s clothes doesn’t really fit the ‘rock’ genre.) The music video is really a story with a strong narrative attending to the piece. The music video promotes the band extremely well as it shows off the bands sense of humour that they put into mostly all of there videos and have become well known for. The music video is aimed at young adults who are into this genre of music and videos with a humorous nature. This is confirmed by looking at commetnts on Youtube, where most people are talking about the humour in the video - "This vid is hilarious", "Always laff when I watch this vid", "Dave is so funny as a gay". This perhaps shows that while the video can add to people's enjoyment it might also distract them from the song. One person commented that they had "Always thought this song was about Grohl's relationship with God" until they saw the video, so it could be that for this person the video has made the song less meaningful.
The director Jesse Peretz was himself originally a bass player for the band Lemonheads in the late '80s. He began working as a director in the Boston area directing music videos (including for his own band) commercials, and the "Jimmy the Cabdriver" segments for MTV. His best known videos are probably the ones for Foo Fighters – he shot "Big Me",”The One”, “Long Road to Ruin” and “Low”. All of these videos are made in a humorous style, and feature quite clear narratives.
Most of his other videos are for smaller bands, although he did direct the video for “School of Rock” (from the film featuring Jack Black. In 1998, he directed his first feature film “First Love, Last Rites.” In 2007 he directed “The Ex” which is his first film with well known actors, although it received very poor critical reviews.
Bibliography
http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=10883
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learn_to_Fly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Short_Form_Music_Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJS1rmhI6c
http://www.hollywood.com/
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow
“Go With The Flow” was released in 2003 by Queens of the Stone Age from their album “Songs for the Deaf”. At the 46th Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. The music video was made in England by Shynola (a group of visual artists based in London who have worked together on a number of acclaimed music videos) . The video was nominated for the Best Art Direction, and won Best Special Effects at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
The video is shot completely in red, black and white, and features the band travelling through the desert at high speed in a 1960’s pickup truck along with other imagery, most of it of a sexual nature. The video is highly stylised with a very simple narrative of 2 cars racing towards each other.
The main Mise-en-scene feature is the two trucks which are hurtling towards each other down a deserted highway. Other Mise-en-scene such as telegraph poles, cactus plants, phone box with a raven on top and wooden fencing are mainly used for the purpose of highlighting the speed of the vehicles (as they race past) and indicating that they are in a desert. Throughout the video everyday objects are used in a sexually suggestive way. For example at 1.04 after a bikini wearing young woman is first seen draped across a car bonnet raising her leg, a guitar neck is shown rising at the same angle. At 1.20 the woman (enlarged) lies in the road with her legs open and a small car enters between them. At 1.53 the woman holds an oil can up and ‘oil’ squirts on her face. At 2.18 the woman is again shown on the car bonnet with her legs open as a man approaches her and begins to climb on the bonnet, straight after this the two cars meet and ‘merge’ causing a logo of a fork prong to enter a hole made by a coiled snake (the logos are on the 2 car bonnets.) This is followed at 2.35 by a swarm of ‘sperm’ that swim through the desert and cactus.
The video mainly uses sweeping shots which go over and around the truck and constantly highlight the speed of it. The only time that slower sweeps are used is when the woman is featured, although the camera is still moving.
As stated above the video won an award for visual effects. According to Chris Harding (of Shynola) the concept for the video was based on the artwork for the band’s album cover (mostly red and black) and the film Sin City which was released shortly before. The band also spend a lot of time working at a studio in the desert plus the ‘driving’ pace of the track fitted well with the high speed driving of the trucks.
The film took 8 weeks to make from inception. A live action shoot was done near Los Angeles featuring the band performing in the back of the truck as it speeds down a highway. Green screen was then used to add everything else around the truck. According to Harding the final video features a mix of “nurbs cacti, the dancing girls are animated texture sequences on hand placed planes, and the swimming sperm are instanced geometry flowing along curves. The trails of fire and smoke coming from the truck are sprites with animated texture sequences.”
Harding also says that as the video is so stylised because “We designed everything, right down to the logo's on the truck's gear stick. If we hadn't done this, when we came to do the actual work, we wouldn't have known what to do, and there would have been no continuity.” Stylised visual effects feature throughout the video, but especially at the end where there are lots of sweeping images all merging together, such as flowers, wheels, lines, speedometers and lips.
There aren’t many links between the visuals and the lyrics apart from the ‘flow’ of the swimming sperm and at 0.28 the line “she said I throw myself away” matches lead singer (Josh Homme) throwing away a beer can.
The music links to the video through the ‘driving’ speed of the track and the drummer drumming on the truck’s dashboard. Throughout most of the video the cuts are in time with strong drum beats.
The video fits well into the stereotype of the genre of rock as it features speed, fast cars, darkness and half naked women. Most of the comments about the video on sites such as Youtube are quite simplistic but generally positive. Comments such as "Awesome song and video","I can't get enough of this video", although some people give more detailed comments and have clearly thought about the quality of the video - e.g. "I think this is one of the most visually appealling and creative vids of the century so far","The artisitic direction of this video is amazing." There is also a comment that "If you like this stuff you should check my band out" which shows how a good video can inspire others to make music/videos.
Directors Shynola (Chris Harding, Richard "Kenny" Kenworthy, Jason Groves and Gideon Baws). met at art college. They did not originally intend to make music videos (they intended to make animated films) but found music video a good way to”Try out new ideas and get paid for it.” They preferred music videos to doing commercials as they would still have almost total control of their work. They are now very successful and have produced videos for top artists such as Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur. They have also done animation work for adverts (Nike,2002), television (The IT crowd, title sequences, 2006) and film (Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, 2004).
Bibliography
http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=1072&page=2
Wikipedia
Purposes of research
The reason research is so important is because it provides a strong background to the work i am undertaking.
There are two types of research these are;
Primary Research - Is research that you have undertaken by yourself and you have not relied on research which has been posted on the internet etc.. You have to collect your research and information from what's around you by going out and asking the public, friends or family. Therefor this research is your own and can not be found anywhere else.
Secondary Research - This is the complete opposite to primary research as this is information that you take off the internet or from books. This research is however is not reliable as anyone could of written it. In this case books are more likely to be the safer option as books have to go under checks to see if the information inside is reliable.
Task 3 - Music Video Director Research
Michel Gondry was born in Versailles in France. He is one of the most recognised music video directors of the last 20 years and is said to have helped revive the music video in the 1990’s.
When he was young Gondry wanted to be a painter (he says he was always drawing cartoons as a child) or an inventor and his family was also influenced by pop music (his frandfather invented an early sythesiser and his father sold electric guitars.) All of these may have influenced him in later life. In the 1980s he went to art school (Ecole Olivier de Serres)to develop his graphical skills and where he also formed a rock band (Oui Oui) with some other students. The band had 2 albums and he made his videos for them. He went on to make a number of other music videos for relatively unknown artists until in 1993 the Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk saw some of these videos and asked him to direct her video for the song "Human Behaviour".
This video was very successful and was played regularly on music channels such as MTV. He masde several other videos for Bjork and had a large budget to spend on these. This success led to him working with many other top musical artists as well as being employed to make adverts for many top companies (e.g. Gap, Smirnoff, Coca Cola, Nike.) His advert for Levi’s jeans (“Drugstore”) holds the record for the most awards won by a television advert. In many of his videos and adverts he devised new techniques. For example he is said to be the first person to use 'morphing' in a video, and his technique of using multiple cameras to take simultaneous pictures from around a subject was later adapted for the hit film "The Matrix".
Since the mid 80’s he has made many short films and in 2001 directed his first feature film “Human Nature” although this did not get very good reviews. In 2004 he made “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” starring Jim Carey. This film got very good reviews and Gondry won an Oscar for the screenplay. In the film he used many of the techniques he had used in his music videos.
Gondry has worked with many top artists, the likes of Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, and Beck.
Many of these videos contain similar styles and themes. They often contain ‘alternative realities’ or ‘parallel universes’ where everyday things and situations are slightly different – back to front, images repeated, or reversed. For example in Beck’s video “Dead Weight” a man works at his desk on a beach, and later enters a room with wallpaper in frames, and photos for wallpaper.
In his interviews Gondry often says he gets ideas from his dreams. He also refers to his childhood and how it influences his work. For example in the Foo Fighters video for “Everlong” Dave Grohl’s character grows a giant hand to fight the ‘bad guys’ (played by co-band members.) Having giant hands is something Gondry had recurring nightmares about as a child.
As a child he lived right on the edge of a forest which was near the edge of a city. He used this idea in his video for Bjork’s “Human Behaviour” which shows nature taking over a city, a globe with forests and cities on it and a bear that chases Bjork through it. Bjork says that they both have a “vivid imagination” which is why they work so well together.
Although many of his videos seem strange and random he is actually a very precise worker and often uses mathematical knowledge and geometrical patterns. In the Daft Punk video for “Round the World” each different instruments is played by different characters/dancers, moving in a different pattern in time with their designated instruments. The baseline is performed by the ‘athletic guys’, keyboard by ‘disco girls’, guitar by dancers in skeleton costumes and the vocals by ‘robots’. The robots move around the outside of the stage to represent going around the world. Each group of characters actions are carefully planned and choreographed. Gondry says he is influenced by the precision of Michael Jackson’s routines and had always wanted to work with him.
His mathematical view of things is also shown in the White Stripes video for “The Hardest Button to Button”. This shows drum sets moving in time to the music. Gondry planned this very carefully with each beat corresponding to one of the instruments and the drum sets moving. 72 drum sets were used in the video. This video is unusual as it shows the artists performing. Gondry does not normally like to show this as he says it has been done so often before, but he was impressed by White Stripes in a live performance so made an exception.
Gondry says that he likes animation as "animation is typical of how you would represent an energy going through your brain, the process of thinking." As a shy child he says it was a way he could communicate with people. He adds "That's what fascinated me: it's the closest form of art that reflects what you have in your mind. I saw that very early on in animation: complete freedom. I would take a book and do a little animation of a guy going to jail, just with a flick book. The idea that you can make your own entertainment yourself is very important to me."
He is also influenced by unusual fiction such as "Le Passe-Muraille by Marcel Aymé" which he says is a great story. It is simple but with "A premise that's completely absurd but leads to a lot of imagination and possibilities." Many of his video could be decribed inthe same way.
The intended target audience is mostly people who like ‘alternative’ and rock music styles – e.g. artists like Bjork, Foo Fighters, White Stripes and Vines, although he has also worked with more mainstream artists like Kylie Minogue and Sir Paul McCartney.
He successfuly appeals to these audiences by not just offering them ‘basic’ videos, but provides videos that are varied and always interesting to watch. His videos don’t usually have a narrative. They are often highly stylised and quite fascinating to watch.
There don’t appear to be many blogs or message boards about Michel Gondry, although comments about him under his DVD on Amazon include “How this guy has so many genuinely interesting ideas for videos is incredible.”
"He's a real artist."
"So many clever touches - you really have to watch some of these videos several times to 'get' all the ideas he puts into his work. In short, there is no other video director who is quite so innovative, creative, artistic and just plain damn brilliant as Michel Gondry.” and
“What he does is literally unexplainable and something you have to see in action. Wondrous photography skills and innovative ideas that you'd never be able to see from anyone else.”
Michel Gondry seems to get alot of very postive responses from his audience about his music videos. On youtube his video for Kylie Minogues "Come into my world" there are comments such as, "Michel Gondry!!! he's quite a little genius" and "i loved this vid from the very first time i saw it on mtv years ago. it just captivates us!". This shows me that even his early work is still remembered and treasured by most the people viewed it. Furthermore the music videos for the band "The Vines" recieved very appreciative comments saying how good the video is. Comments such as, "i love this video, least its not going to be like any other music video you ever see :D", "This song is epic and the video it just even more epic!!!". On all of Michel Gondrys videos on YouTube i could not find any negative comments only positive ones. This just shows that his audiences take to his videos extremely well and love his vivid imagination.
However the success of his videos is shown as most of the videos are played regularly on music channels and the songs sell in high numbers. Dave Grohl (of the Foo Fighters) has said about “Everlong” that “Everyone says it’s the best video we have ever made” and that he also thinks “It can’t be topped unless we work with Michel Gondry again.” It appears that Foo Fighters fans agree with this as “Everlong” recently got the most votes on the MTV channel when fans voted for their favourite Foo Fighters video, even though there were 20 videos to choose from and “Everlong” was made back in 1997.
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