Marc Klasfeld is an American music video director; he has also directed and written commercials, independent films and documentaries. Klasfeld has directed over 200 music videos for famous artists such as Jay-Z, Kid Rock, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and many more. His videos have established his own unique style. He is also a television commercial director for brands such as Nike, Reebok and cartoon network. His work mainly attracts rock and rap artists due to his unique blends of humour which make each video he produces something that has not been seen before.
March 29th 2010 Klasfeld released a viral video of a mock-elementary school play entitled 'Scarface School Play'. The viral video received over 2 million within 24 hours, making it the most popular viral of all times plus generating attention from major network companies such as Fox News, ABC, CNN and CBS.
Scarface School
Why did Marc Klasfeld create this video?
The inspiration behind this video came from his previously made humorous videos such as Hammer Pants Dance. Whilst creating the video he was unaware that it would become huge.
The Play used young children acting as adults this made the video funny to watch. Initially the video as written for a TV show but it never got made so instead Klasfeld decided to create the video on his own. There was no controversial issue caused from the parents of the children, they thought that it was a good idea and they wanted their children to become actors and actresses.
His well-known commercial work are Hammer Pants Dance for the A&E Networks reality show, Hammer time; Avril Lavigne's canon campaign and Smirnoff's Green Tea Party viral video sang by Sebastian Siegel. Klasfeld was also the founder of Rockhard, a production company that also houses directors such as Ray Kay, Tony Pertrossian, Sarah Chartfield and Steve Jocz.
I have chosen to evaluate Monarchy of Roses By Red Hot Chili Peppers’ music video. I have chosen this music video because I like the concept of the video and the drawing techniques which are included in the video.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Manarchy of Roses
Klasfeld has previously worked with them before directing "The adventures of Rain Dance Maggie" one of their successful music videos. The project came about by the band giving Klasfeld their song to work on and come up with a concept for their music video. The video uses the artwork of Raymond Pettiton which gives the music video an animated feel showing a new dimension in the way music videos are performed. Throughout the music video it consists of black and white images and the band are also shown in black and white except for the roses which are coloured in red. This theme enhances their genre of rock punk and further highlights their image of a rock band. Their image also plays an important role in this music video as it creates a band identity where the public can instantly identify what their genre of music is and their main target audience of people who are interested in rock music and are in the age boundaries of 16-late 20's. I think their target audience when it comes to age is varied because the band formed in 1983 and so the people who are in their late 20's would still be hard core fans now. However, people of a young age may also be fans of the band because the band is constantly releasing new songs and adding modern influences to it.
The filming of this music video took place on October 4th 2011 and was shot on a green screen which they took stills of Pettibon's work plus the footage of the band and edited them together, this process was done repeatedly until eventually they ended up with "the perfect music video". The music video was released on the band's website, Facebook page and their YouTube channel. The music video was released on November 14th 2011. As this is a new music video it has not yet been nominated for awards. On the other hand the song itself made it 4th place on the Canada Alternative Rock Charts.
From this video, I would like to use it as inspiration for my own music video. I think that the variety of camera angles and the jerky movement of the band have made this video unique.
Above the tilt camera angle gives it a quirky aspect. Plus the low angle shot draws attention to the lead singer. From this music video I also like how it is all filmed in black and white. I think that this also emphasises the genre and theme of rock in the music.
Art is used in the music video to illustrate what the portrayal of the song is. I also think that the art helps to give the music video a rocky look because it is drawn in block outline and not much shading making it stand out from the white background.
A long shot show the band together playing the drums, guitar. However, the lead singer is singing but there is no microphone stand in front of him. This part of the video was filmed of a rotating board so there was no need for the camera crew to go around the band, the band rotated in front of them. Some parts of the video make it obvious that the band is on a rotating board because the lead singer walks backwards but he stays in the same spot he was before. I like the idea of the rotating board and would like to use it in my music video.
The use of words in the music video do not say what the lead singer is singing but helps to emphasis the story of the music video.
Another music video directed by Marc Klasfeld is Last Friday Night by Katy Perry. I have chosen to analyse this music video because it is a different genre to what I have analysed so far and it would be interesting to pick out what is different about this video which sets it out from the rest and places it in the genre of pop.
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night
Klasfeld has previously worked with Katy Perry in 3OH!3's music video 'Starstrukk' and so he know that she could pull of comedy. The location of the video was shot at Dukes of Hazzard' actor John Schneider's house, Klasfeld said "That added a special spirit to the piece...with all this classic 'Dukes of Hazzard' stuff up on the walls". The inspiration for the video came from Sixteen Candles a film work by John Hughes who was a film maker back in the 80's and 90's.
Perry's image in the video came from 80's style with neon colours and swirly graphics. The costume itself was inspired by the character Betty Suarez played by America Ferrera in the series Ugly Betty. Perry is first shown as a geek, who is unsociable and not many people want to become her friend because of her appearance. Perry has used this costume before the video was made on 2010 Teen Choice Awards. The video also features famous faces such as Rebecca Black and Kenny G. The music video was released on Perry's YouTube profile on June 4th 2011. The song reached 1st position on the Billboard Hot 100 charts on August 27th 2011.
When Perry decides to join the party, her friend Rebecca Black, transforms her from geek to 80's neon coloured chick.
The layout of the music video is set out like a typical American film with the title of the song on top of a location shot with a slight calm, happy music in the background. Characters names are also shown at the beginning as as well. The end of the music video, like a film the deleted scenes are shown along with all the people who were involved in the music video. This layout makes it different from the other music videos Katy Perry has done and also different from other music video by other artists.
Low angle shot of inside the house party shows the extent of the mess that was created. This is done so that Perry's target audience of mainly the young generation can relate to this as they may regularly go to house parties.
During the instrumental in the song, a band is shown playing which is synchronised with the song. This technique is similar to the music videos of indie rock music where they show the band playing instruments along with the music.
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