Music video director - Michel Gondry

Gondry was born on 8^th of May 1963 in Versailles, France. Gondry was a successful music and commercial director. His family was heavily influence by pop music; however, when he was young he wanted to be a painter or an inventor. During the 80’s he went to an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills further into his intended field. Over there he met some friends whom created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') but the band separated in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band, he also directed their video clips. From there, it was possible to see what his new interest was. Influenced by the 60’s and his childhood, one of his music videos was shown on to MTV where Björk was inspired by it and asked him if he could make her first solo video (‘Human Behaviour’) Their partnership was famous as he directed five other music videos for her. As his career became successful it led to commissions from other artists around the world wanting Gondry to direct their music videos, including Massive Attack. He also directed a lot of advertisement video clips for brands such as Smirnoff, Gap, Air France, coca-cola, Nike, Polaroid and Levi.

As Gondry became successful, Hollywood started to pay interest in his work; he directed his first feature movie Human Nature in 2001, adapting a Charlie Kaufman’s scenario which was shown at the Cannes Festival in 2001. In contrast, the film was not successful, this film allowed Gondry to direct Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 2004.

Human Behaviour - Björk

Above is one of the first music videos, Gondry have done for their collaboration with Björk. Personally, I am not particularly interested with the style of the music video and so I will not use this video as an inspiration for my own music video. I have put this on to show how Gondry has progressed through the years of directing music videos. Moreover, this would have been taken within the first few years of when Björk hit fame. So her singing techniques are not preferred by most.

Crystalline - Björk

This is another music video that Gondry has directed for Björk. This is a more resent music video and so it shows this through the amount of computer graphics that have been put in. The song was written by Björk herself and the producers were Raffi Adlan and Joel Kretschman. The directors for the animation were Peter Sluszka. The video was recorded on May 26th 2011, and premiered on You Tube July 26th 2011. As usual, the song was released earlier then the music video on June 28th 2011. The lyrics to the song talk about the process of Crystallization in materials and rocks, but metaphorically it comes from a more personal view, relating to growth of crystal structures with the growth of relationships. Björk took the inspiration for the song from cities and buildings "seems like each one of them has a different mood, different spatial tension or release". In her own words it briefly describes her decision for the song and so reflects her ideas for the music video.

Fell in Love with a girl - The White Stripes

Above was another successful music video directed by Gondry in 2002. The song is by an American Garage Rock band which was written and produced by Jack White. It was for the bands third album "White Blood Cells". The music video is a LEGO animation featuring Gondry's son at the beginning of the video, building LEGO blocks. It was shot frame by frame with each frame having the LEGO bricks rebuilt, in a complex manner to seem as if it were an actual shot, and then formed together to give the illusion of motion. The video won three MTV Video Music Awards in 2002: Breakthrough Video, Best Special Effects, and Best Editing. It also received a nomination for Video of the Year, but lost out to Eminem's "Without Me". Pitchfork Media deemed it the best video of the decade. And finally Entertainment Weekly included it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "An idea so simple it's a wonder no one thought of it before 2002.

Music video director - Spike Jonze

He is an American director, producer and actor who was born on October 22 1969 in Rockville, Maryland USA. His work includes music videos, commercials, films and television. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Charlie Kaufman including the 1999 film “Being John Malkovich" and the 2002 film "Adaptation", and for his work as director of the 2009 film “Where the Wild Things are”. He is well known also for his music video collaborations with Weezer, Beastie Boys, and Bjork. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV's "Jackass." He is currently the creative director of VBS.tv. Jonze also is the part owner of skateboard company “Girls Skateboards” with riders Rick Howard and Mike Carroll.

In 1998 Jonze directed "Praise you" by Fatboy Slim, this was a Torrance Public Film Production from the album "You've Come a Long Way, Baby. The song was released on 4th January 1999 in the United Kingdom and on the 16th February 1999 in the United States of America. The genre of this song is Big beat and Alternative Rock. While the length of the album version is 5:23 minutes, the radio edit is shortened to 3:24 minutes. This would have been done because the song consists of a few lines being repeated over a beat and would eventually become less entertaining after a few plays. It was also shortened on the radio edit so that there is less time used up on the radio as they have certain time slots that they will have to follow by and they can’t afford to lose by having long songs. The record label of the UK song is called Skint and the US label is called Astralwerks. On the US billboard Hot 100 charts the song made 36 in the 1999 charts and in the UK it was number 1 on the singles charts 1999. Jonze stared in the music video with the dance with the fictional Torrance Community Dance group, the video shows them dancing to the song "Praise you". Jonze has also produced "The Rockafella Skank" but he was unable to work with him in the music video.



In analysis to this music video; this is unique with the effect to make it seem as though it was taken on the spur of the moment due to the hand held camera and having other onlookers in the background and of the side of the camera. The video its self makes bad dancers look good, as this was done deliberately to make it look more natural and not staged.The video was taken after Fatboy Slim's performance at the Mayan Theatre in LA. They filmed it outside a Westwood theatre with The Torrance Community Dance Group, theatre managers and the appearance of unscheduled bouncer's, as was a break dancing Michael Jackson impersonator (but he was cut from the video). This was all taken in one take under 10 minutes. The video is an expanded version of Spike Jonze's (Video Guru behind Weezer's "Buddy Holly," Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," and the Chemical Brothers' song called "Electrobank") video for "Rockafeller Skank". The video was filmed as joke showing a video tape of Jonze dancing on Hollywood Boulevard.

Spike Jonze has also worked with many other music artists in directing their music videos. Kanye West is another example where Jonze has co-directed the video with Kanye West. Whilst searching for this song I have found three different versions to this song, one of them being the official music video. I thought that it was unusual for them to create three different versions.

When searching for the music video, on youtube they say that this above is the official music video for flashing lights by Kanye West.

 

This song was released on November 22nd 2007 for Kanye West's Third album "Graduation". The song it's self was co-produced by Eric Hudson and featuring the R&B singer Dwele, as well as having additional vocals provided by Connie Mitchell from Sneaky Sound System. The genre is Hip hop / R&B with a length of about 3-4 minutes long. The record labels for this artist or song is by both Roc-a-Fella and Def Jam. The cover of the single was designed by a Japanese pop artist, Takashi Murakami. This video was co-directed by Jonze along with West and produced by Jonathan Becker and Joshua Greenberg from the Bucks Boys Productions.

In total three separate music videos were made for the song "Flashing Lights". The third music video was first unveiled for an audience of 200 guests at the Entertainment Weekly Grammy Awards after-party on February 10th, 2008. It was intended to be shown at BET on February 13th, 2008, but it was subsequently pulled from the schedule. West decided to premiere the video onto his official blog the same day. The first and official music video for "Flashing Lights" was filmed entirely in slow-motion and was set at dusk in the desert outside Las Vagas, Nevada. The woman shown is a playboy model, Rita. Kanye is shown tied up in the boot of the car. As the camera pans out, the woman get a shovel from the side of the car boot and it shows her repeatedly stabbing Kanye. This shot is not shown close up because it would be too gruesome for the viewers. The video then abruptly cuts to the words "Flashing Lights" written in red letters against a black background before ending over a minute earlier than the album version is the song. 

The second video for the single leaked into the internet on May 23rd, 2008 casting the UK model Charlotte Carter-Allen as a young woman who becomes overwhelmed by the New York Nightlife. This version of the music video was listed number 2 on the Viral Video Charts on May 30th. The third video was voted as 11th best music video of 2008 by Rolling Stone and Pitchfork Media voted the same version as 15th best music video of the decade. Following these releases, West clarified on his official blog that he did not release two other videos worldwide on the internet. He had produced more than one version for common practice and only selected the one he was happiest with; the rest must have been leaked by someone else.  

  

Animatic for my First Chosen Song

Karolina by The Scandal

I first chose this song from The Scandal because the jazz, indie, pop elements were, in my opinion, easy to work with. The lyrics to the song clearly stated what the song is about. The storyline of the song is about a girl who the lead singer loves but his friends tell him that she is not worth it. In my animatic I have put long and close up shots showing the band performing in a white room or a basement. I had two ideas for showing the band playing instruments because I thought the white room would give a clear focus on the band and so the audience would not get distracted by the background. My second choice was the basement because in my opinion it would show how they used to practise songs together. The next scene is at a park, showing all the band members messing about and having fun. This would also show that the target audience may be for girls from the age of 16-18 years old because they may be attracted to the way they act when they are not performing on stage. Moreover, the last scene is in a bar where the lead singer meets a girl who comes up to him and says "I like your music" and he replies saying "I like your face". I have decided not to choose this song for my music video because, I have found a song with a lot more beat and so it is easy to get more shots in the music video and keep it fast pass. I also think that this song was slow and I also did not like the pop elements of the song. Furthermore, the ideas I had for the music video did not match the song. In my opinion, the ideas where better then the song and so the song would have looked out of place with the music video. 

End Credits by Chase and status ft. Plan B

In my animatic to shows how I have thought about the band identity and how their genre would be reflected in their music video. I have taken some inspiration from existing music videos such as quick picture type shots shown in End credits by chase and status ft. Plan B.

Moving to New York by The Wombats



Some of my inspiration for my music video has come from Moving to New York by The Wombats. I have wanted my music video to be similar to this because the genre is comparable to my chosen song. From this video, I have embraced the harmonious shots of the band, to show and reflect their personality. I feel that this would be a good technique to draw audiences to watch the music video because it would give laughter.

Below are a few photographs some of the drawing that are included in my animatic.

Above is an extreme shot of the guitar being played. I intend to use this in my music video because I have found that most music videos in this genre tend to have close ups of instruments being played. This would also show their audience their skill at playing the instruments and how well they are capable of playing. In particular, this is mostly done in Viva La Vida by Coldplay which is where I found some of my inspiration from.

Viva la Vida by Coldplay

I wanted to put the name of the band on the drums so that their audience would recognise the name of the band and creating a band identity. Their name would act as a logo for the band. Moreover, the handwriting style on the drums would become recognisable throughout the music video. 

The long shot shows behind the band, I have seen this technique in one of the Arctic Monkey's video. I want to include this into my music video because I think that is effective and mysterious. It would let the audience feel as though they are on stage with the band performing. It will also allow the audience to see what the band can see. Below is a screen shot of the Arctic Monkeys music video to show where the inspiration has from.

In my music video, I wanted to include shots of the band messing about, playing football and just having a good time. This would reflect their personality to their audience and show them what they get up to other then creating music.

Here is another shot from my animatic of a different location, in the bar. This would show where the band member met a girl as it is mentioned in the song.

Lyrics to my First chosen song

Karolina By The Scandal

You said my music,

It's got flavour.

But if you saw my girl

It's gunna save you...

I was sitting in a tiny bar

And when you came running

Massive gosh

You said, 'I like your music'

I said 'Ilike your face'

------------------------

--------------------

You said my music,

It's got flavour

It's got flavour (said by all members of the band)

But if you saw my girl

It's gunna save you

This is bad behaviour ( all members)

It's been six hours now

And I've had enough

And you did my ---

You called my bluff

Said I like your music

You said I like your taste

It's getting awful red now

I'm going away

You said my music

It's got flavour

It's got flavour (all members)

But if you saw my girl

It's gunna save you

This is bad behaviour (all members)

You save it all for later

And save me

And save me (all members)

And you will forever be my

Baby, baby, baby, baby

(Instrumental)

Below is the song in which I have written the lyrics for above.

By listening to the song repeatedly I have been able to come up with a concept for my music video. These ideas have been shown through the animatic for this song. 

I first chose this song because I thought that it would be easy to work with because the song is repetitive. However, because the song is slow to start of with it is hard to engage the audience with the start of the music video. 

By listening to this song my initial ideas where to show the band messing about, having a good time and show them as rebels going around in shopping trolleys, playing football. I also wanted to show the lead singer in a bar. This I found difficult to do as the main problem was filming in a bar. But to solve this, I also thought of setting up my own bar with jazzy wallpaper on two boards and a small round table and a pint of beer to give the atmosphere that they are in a bar to the audience. 

Researching Unsigned Bands/Artists

In preparation for my own music video I have researched bands that mainly have the genre style of Indie pop, rock. I have deliberately limited my choices because it would be easier when it comes to filming, all there is needed is the band, possibly other people to act for the storyline of what the song is portraying. There will also be no need for a dance group because it would not fit with the genre of the song. However, in one of The Arctic Monkeys music video there is a dance group, but it fits in well with the beat of the song and style with the way it has been sung. To find bands I have used Unsigned.com as a search engine.

The Scandal

Genre: Rock, Indie and funk

Band members: George Fayle - guitar/lead singer

Tom Hindle - Bass/ Backing vocals

Michael McManus - Drums/backing vocals

They are from Leeds UK. I have chosen them because I think that their music is similar to The Arctic Monkeys. I also think that because they are a band it would be easier to film by focusing onto three different people of the band. Here is there unsigned web account http://www.unsigned.com/thescandalleeds

Karolina By The Scandal

 I think that their music would be easy to work with because the genre and style of their singing would make it easy for me to create a music video.

I have contacted this band via email, I have found two emails for this band and I have used both.

"Dear, The Scandal band,

I am an A level student studying media and for our A2 assignment I have to create a music video for an unsigned band. During this process I will have other people acting out in the music video, create a storyboard of ideas to put in the video, design a CD and digipack designs, create a magazine cover advertising your song.

I have found your band on the unsigned website; I think that your music genre is great and would be good for a music video. I would be interested in choosing "Karolina" or "The General Perspective" for the music video then I will create. Also could I have the lyrics for these songs please?

If you are interested please contact me ASAP. Thank you

S.Mistry"

Furthermore, by looking on their Unsigned account and listening to their songs, I would prefer to choose "Karolina" for my music video. Listening to this song I came up with ideas to include in the music video.  Below is a rough idea of how I would want the music video to look like:

• Star with a location shot of the band standing in a line walking through an abandoned warehouse. The beginning of the video will show the front of the band and at the end it will show behind them with their backs facing the camera and walking out of the abandoned warehouse. 
• When the song starts it is slow with the sound of a guitar at the end of a line in the song. At this point I thought it would be good to show the band setting up their instruments and a girl would be at the side watching them set up. This would set the storyline of the song being about a girl who was interested in them but grew out of that interest when another guy came in.
• Mainly close up shots of the band playing the guitar and the drums in synchronisation with the song.
• Another location at a bar as the song mentions "I was sitting in a tiny bar". For this I may need permission to film in a bar or I could set one up.
• As the song is upbeat especially during the chorus, I want to film the band together messing about such as running around in shopping trolleys and playing football. Showing their audience what they do besides creating music and also setting their target audience to be mainly girls’ ages from 16-18 years old as they may fancy members of the band.

I have also contacted other bands and artists such as:

• Band name: 1984

Genre: indie, Pop, Rock

From: London

Email: thebandis1984@gmail.com

• Band name: Silent Sundays

Genre: Indie, Punk Rock

From: Sheffield

Email: yecartsirhr@hotmail.co.uk

• Band name: The Colours

Genre: Pop, Dance, Alternative

From: United Kingdom

Email: shane@bwmusic.co.uk

thecolours@mac.com

Websites: www.thecolours.co.uk

www.myspace.com/thecoloursreading

I later decided not to choose these bands above because I lost interest in their song and so could not come up with a concept for the music video.

Below is an artist in which I found on Unsigned.com

Carl Hauck

 Genre: Acoustic, Folk, Experimental

From: USA

Email: carlhauck@gmail.com

Website: www.carlhauck.com

www.myspace.com/carlhauck

For the music video I was considering in choosing "Martial Riesling"

Martial Riesling

I wanted to choose this song for my music video because I thought that it was peaceful and calm. However, it would have been hard to create an interesting music video in a modern way because the song itself sounds oldfashioned.

An analysis of three music videos of different genres

Chase and Status featuring Plan B - End Credits

Chase and Status are an electronic production duo from London. They mainly stick to the genres of drum and bass, dub step and hip hop. Their record label is Mercury Records and their label type is Major Label. The band members of chase and status are Saul Milton known as (chase) and Will Hennaed who is known as (status). In this music video, chase and status have done the sound and have played it with the vocals of Plan B. The genre of this song is drum and bass; this is because the music video mainly focuses on gang culture and crime.

The start of the music video begins with a medium close up, low angle shot of the main character or the singer (Plan B) falling down to the ground. This shot has been slowed down to go with the slow instrumental guitar sound. Near to when the vocals start, special effects have been added to the guitar to building up tension and to create a different tone. The singer in the video is seen as the main vocal point showing that this is his song and he is singing. He is wearing a grey hoodie with the hood up as he is falling to the ground. This instantly tells the audience what kind of genre it is and the main topic of the video will be about crime, violence and show gang culture. As he (Plan B) is falling there is a dark disfigured man in the background, he too is wearing a hoodie, he seems to be watching Plan B fall. After there is a close up reaction shot of the side of Plan B's face as he hits the ground, this is shot has been slowed down like the first shot. Personally I feel that this is very effective, especially for the start of the music video because it keeps the viewers wanting to carry on watching the whole of the music video. Throughout the video, it has been filmed at night and most of the shots have been filtered to create a sense of coldness and to make it gloomy. This is a typical technique for music genres such as drum and bass. About 45 seconds into the video, vocals start with lip synchronisation. This close up shot shows Plan B waking up after falling to the ground, his eyes are looking from left to right with confusion. 

As soon as the drums kick in, there is a series of fast close up shots of photographs of a murder investigation, people with blood on their faces and medium shots of Plan B. The fast close up shots match the beat of the song showing that the director of this video has matched the video with the rhythm of the song. Straight after this Plan B is shown wearing a suit and sitting at a table with people who are questioning him, there is no other dialogue just the vocal of the song on the music. This scene is shot in a dark small room with a green or blue filter to create a sense of coldness. Being the people who are questioning his is a clone of Plan B but he is wearing a grey hoodie as we have seen him before wearing this. No one else can see his but Plan B who is sitting at the table; this means that he is imagining this as his own conscience. His clone looks as though his is mocking the police who are questioning Plan B who are wearing a suit. There is another quick shot, this time it is in white filter showing a man’s face towards the bottom half of the shaky camera. This could be put in so that it breaks up the tension that has already been shown in the video or to show a behind the scene footage. 

The next scene shows the outside at night, giving another edgy effect. This is a high angle shot of a gang crowding around someone who is lying on the floor getting badly beaten up. Giving more evidence to what the genre is by showing gang culture. There is also graffiti on the walls and the pillars on the building. It is then followed by a medium close up of an old man who is looking out of his window watching the gang beating up someone. We then go back to the close up of the side of the singer's face that is lying on the floor. All of the closes up shots of Plan B wearing the grey hoodie are shown in lip synchronisation. This shows that the director has chosen to do the lip sync in one steady shot and not to go through scenes with different outfits on, making it easier to get the lip sync right at the first few times when filming it. We get another repeated shot of the gang outside and the old man looking out of the window, this reflects why the police want to question Plan B for evidence.

The next scene is inside a dark tunnel with graffiti all over the walls, it has been filtered in blue to emphasise the coldness of the main characters feelings and to show what they are doing is wrong. The main focus is on the right hand side of the screen making the background blurred but the audience can still see a little of who is in the background. The main character can see himself but wearing the grey hoodie, he is reflecting his own conscience warning him not to do bad things. From this point, low angle shots of the main singer makes him look dominant from the rest. A man with blood on his face enters the tunnel saying "he's got a gun". Plan B uses the gun to shoot the old man who is trying to shoot them. This gives the audience more information to why Plan B was being questioned by police detectives. The use of weapons is common for this type of genre as it mainly shows gang culture.

This music video tells the main character's (Plan B) own version of the event that happened. Without having that much dialogue it lets the audience know what he might have said to the detectives. It also shows the audience how Plan B was involved in this event. Little dialogue is used other than the lyrics of the song such as "fuck you" and "he's got a gun", emphasising in emotions by showing anger and frustration to why the police is accusing his of doing something wrong. However, dialogue is not used when they are in the police detective room; instead the video helps the audience understand what he might have said to the police for his witness of the event. A cheeky side of Plan B is shown at the beginning of the video, he smirks at his conscience that is behind the detectives as if to say "you don’t know anything". A series of shot reverse shot of Plan B and the detective room marks the end of this scene.

After, a new scene start with an establishing shot of Plan B falling the background, just as we saw it at the beginning of this music video, the shot was slowed down to create impact to the audience. It also reflects what the audience have seen at the beginning of the song. But this time he instead of falling down, he seems to be lifting upwards. A series of fast shots of smashing windows and fire shows his memory of the event, and people have gone out of control. An old man whom we have seen previously in the video is hurt, but Plan B's conscience seems to be mocking him. They are beside a bridge again at night, there is not that much light. Shot reverse shot shows Plan B running away from the old man and the old man hurt falling to the floor. In the shot reveres shot there is also shots of Plan B who is wearing a grey hoodie singing with lip sync. This scene shows the evil side to Plan B and why the police wanted to question him. This is then followed by the consequence to his actions of another series of shot reveres shots of the old man in hospital and Plan B wearing the grey hoodie. Throughout the music video lip synchronisation is only shown by medium close ups of Plan B wearing a grey hoodie.

An establishing shot begins the next scene, showing rioting police with shields. This shot is also a shot reveres shot of the police and Plan B wearing the grey hoodie and singing in front of the camera with lip synchronisation. This shot reverse shot reflects the beat of the song giving it more rhythm. This shot them leads into showing people rioting and throwing petrol bombs. The audience see a different shot of the main singer with a long shot; he is standing on the left hand side of the camera showing the audience people rioting behind him. Giving more reason to why the police wanted to question him. We go back to the medium close up of Plan B singing and shot reverse shot of the old man getting beaten up as we saw before. 

Establishing shot shows a new scene, this time Plan B is on the roof top of a building, he is singing with lip synchronisation. He is crouching on the floor on the right hand side of the camera. Around him are people that have been badly beaten up with gun wounds and blood over their clothing. This scene shows the consequence to the violence that was going on. Next we move on to a new scene beginning with a panning close up of three men, one f them is talking to the other two showing he is the main leader, but the audience can't hear what they are saying. This grabs the audience’s attention; they want to find out what the characters are saying. A tracking shot follows them, the camera is hand held giving the music video edginess. This shot is intertwined with shots reveres shots of Plan B singing. The tracking shot leads the audience to the beginning shot of the music video of Plan B lying on the floor marking the end on the song. As this is the last scene the music fades out giving it a gentle end.

Coldplay- Viva la vida

This song was written by all of the band members for their fourth album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" (2008). The lyrics to the song contain historical and Christian references "look to the doors to let me in" meaning looking through the gates of heaven. The official music video for "Viva la Vida" was directed by Hype Williams and premiered on Coldplay's official website 1st August 2008. Since its release, this video has become one of the most viewed music videos on YouTube, with over 100,000,000 views worldwide.

This music video is different from the rest of this genre as it starts without showing the main singer. Instead it starts with a dark filtered extreme close up of a red rose opening and the camera has been twisted around to show the different angles of the rose. This shot must have been sped up in order to shot the flower open up at such high speed as this does not happen in a blink of an eye. As the rose is shown opening up, the sound of a violin is being played in the background. The sound builds up until the vocals start to kick in. 14 seconds into the music video the lyrics of the song starts along with an extreme close up side view of the main singer singing with lip synchronization. This shot looks as though it has been projected onto the wall because on the singers face there are cracks and there is a grainy texture. Furthermore, throughout the music video the flow of the video is jerky, it looks as though they have cut small parts of the filming to make it jump or they could have taken a series of photographs put together to build up the whole music video. This would be a similar technique one of their other music video "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall". This give an old look to the video, it takes the viewers back in time to when people did use projectors to watch films. After the close up of the lead singer there is an extreme close up of someone playing the drums, this slowly blends into the sound of the violin that was playing at the start of the music video. All the way through the music video there is a brown filter that has been out in through editing, this also adds to the old effect.

Close up the lower half of the double bass being played, the camera focuses on to the strings of where it shows the person's hand. There is more focus on the strings, but as the camera slowly moves upwards to the person who is playing, it becomes blurred. The next scene starts off with a low angle shot of someone playing a guitar. By having a low angle shot of the main singer makes him dominant from the rest, there is also lip synchronization, he moving his hands as if he his telling a story through the movements. There is a brown orange background, adding to the dark old feel to the music video. The movements that the singer is doing are suitable for the genre that the song is. High angle shot of the singer gives a different view of the singer. He is holding one hand up, but not covering his face instead it frames his face. In the high angle shot of the main singer he is looking up towards the camera, eye line match to the audience, as if he is telling the song/story directly to them. A long slightly low angle shot of the whole band playing, to show the audience who is in the band and recognition to the band members. Behind them, it looks as though there is a red flag being projected onto the wall because you can see the cracks. Again, a brown filter has been put in to give it an old feel, this technique has been done throughout the music video. Followed be a quick extreme close up of the sticks hitting the drums, synchronizing with the sound that has been given off in the song. This is then followed by an action zoom out, showing the man who is playing the drums. I intend to use this technique in my music videos because I feel that it shows the audience the instruments that are used also it would be easy filming due to the lack of professional people to play the instruments that are going to be used in my music video. Towards the end of the music video, there is a dull, sincere moment. There are medium shots showing each individual band member, standing still but rotating towards the camera. Behind them is a black background giving a dark feel, plus the cloths that they are wearing are dull and not bright adding to the atmosphere. Deep red rose petals seem to be coming out of their bodies, making them fade into the background. This gives a dark slow end to the music video, but this technique is effective at giving a subtle dramatic effect to the viewers. In addition, the main body of the lyrics has stopped but there is an eerie spirit like sound which adds to the darkness.

All the way through this music video, there is a constant showing of the lead singer (Chris Martin), mainly through low and high angle close up shots. This is done to give band recognition to the audience that this song is by Cold Play and no one else. Furthermore, there is a lot of close up shots of different instruments playing instead of showing the people playing it.

Snow Patrol - Called out in the dark

The music video above is by the director, Brett Simon. It is a humorous take on the performance video with actor Jack Devenport in the singer’s role and Boston Legal actress Tara Summers, acting as the director in the music video. The Production Company is DNA and the Producer of the video is Jeremy Sullivan. I have chosen this music video because the genre is similar to the song that I have chosen from an unsigned band. From this video I would interpret the humour that has gone into it, because most songs that are the genre of indie, pop, rock do contain harmonious scenes which encourage people to listen to the song and the music video.

Throughout the music video, it based on a filming set, making the viewers feel as though they are watching it first hand from the camera and not second hand from a web source like YouTube or the television. First the lead singer who is in the band comes onto the set, by showing this it first gives the viewers what they are expecting by having the lead singer in the music video. But as soon as they are about to start filming he is sent of the set and the actor, Jack Devenport, comes onto the set and starts miming into the microphone. Another unusual part of this video is that none of the members of the band are shown, the only member shown is Gary Lightbody, he is seen trying to get onto the set and be in the music video, but the director pushed him off as if he has no importance to the music video. In most videos they show all of the band members, if not they show the lead singer of the band acting as a character.

The camera pans across the screen following the movement of Gary as he moves off the set. A long shot of the stage in the middle with Jack lip synchronization to the song and female dancers around him. At the side of the screen you can also see the director and the camera screen as it is being filmed. This music video gives a different feel to what normal music videos do, this gives us an insight of what it might be like to be on the set or backstage of the filming set of the video, it gives a realisation to the audience, looking at the video in the director's point of view. Bright filter has also been put onto this scene to give it a fresh look. At the very start of the video there is not sound except for the voice of the director telling where Gary should stand on the set. The filming prop is used to indicate how many takes were made and what shot is it, this further reinforces the idea of taking their viewers to see the filming set of the music video. 18 seconds into the music video, the song "called out in the dark" starts to play with lip synchronization from Gary who is acting to be the lead singer. The camera keeps switching from Gary the band member of Snow Patrol and the actor Jack connotes Gary's unimportance to the music video and that he has been sent off the set because he could not do what the director asked him to do. High angle shot of the set with Jack Lip synchronization with the song and female dancers and two male dancers are behind him dressed in white making Jack stand out because he is wearing grey. Low angle, medium close up of the actress Tara acting as the director of the music video, the shot shows her miming cut because she has seen Gary go behind the set and so his reflection was shown onto the set. When the camera focuses onto Gary who is meant to be the lead singer, he looks unhappy with what they are doing to his song and music video as he is not able to be in it, he mimes and sings along to the song. Gary gets fed up of standing on the outside so h tries to get onto the set. This adds humour to the music video. It juxtaposes the video of Gary who meant to be on the set but we do not because the actor Jack is taking his place. Another camera prop is shown to show movement around Jack while singing to the song. A side angle view shows his sitting on a chair, on a platform with a camera at the front, he is being wheeled forward and the dancers are behind him swaying their arms to the music. As the camera switches from the backstage screen of the camera and to the actual filming camera we, the viewers can see Gary in the background with the dancers, showing that he will not stand for not being in the music video because it is his song. And so the director has to wheel him off the set again.

A new seen with a much darker lighting, the dancers are holding torches, showing a different technique then just to having darkness. As they are dancing and holding the torch it gives a disco effect and also shows movement. The video also shows that the band is moving away from the typical genre of indie rock to a more indie pop genre. A subtle light spotlight is shone directly onto the actor Jack who is acting to be Gary the lead singer, making him the main topic of the music video. The dancers must be wearing dark clothing to make them look like silhouettes, this is very effective because the background is dark as well and Jack has been light up by the spotlight to make him stand out from the dancers. The long shot of the set showing Jack in the middle and dancers around him enhances what they are wearing and the movement of the dancers. The next scene is on the same set but the lighting is back to how it was seen at the beginning. The camera now is in slow motion showing the female dancers jump up across the screen, to show them in mid-air; it also gives a different feel to the music video instead of showing the whole video in one normal camera motion. Soon after Gary the lead member of the band tries to do the same thing. A side camera medium shot captures him trying to get onto the set; it also shows a green screen which they have used to get the wall effects. Because Gary is wearing green he to blends in with the background, only seeing his head, arms and legs, adding humour to the video. In this process he runs too fast that he bumps into the camera recording tape and gets tangled around it, at this point it is blurred which further emphasises that he is not important in the music video.

Next there is a long shot of Gary alone on the set, he has got hold of the microphone and started singing, first the spotlight is shinning on him, but moves away to how that he is not meant to be on the set, and so Gary tries to move with the spotlight, also creating humour.  But at the same time we, the audience start to feel sorry for him because it is his song and he is not allowed to be on the set. A dark slightly brown filter and low lighting has been put on to make it dark. Another quick long shot shows Jack move onto the set, wondering why Gary is on there, then it quickly moves back to a close up of Jack singing into the microphone in lip synchronization with the song. We go back to the same set in darkness but a blue filter has been put in to enhance the dancers. In a high angle shot it gives a different view to the set, but the dancers are wearing white, and the blue filter enhances the way their clothes glow. The darkness gradually fades out as the dancers move backwards off the set. After there are a few comical close and medium shot of the female dancers, such as a woman peeking through a gap in the camera take prop, on this "Snow Patrol" is written on it. Behind the scene there is footage of the dancers messing about; however, these shots are not in black and white to how that they would be taken backstage of the set in a normal music video. 

Long, slightly low angle shot, showing four female dancers with the lead member of the band, Gary. They are dancing in a straight light. The long shot allows the audience to see the filming camera and the pre view screen. It makes the audience think that they are there watching them film the music video. The set is back to the original bright lighting, but the dancers are still wearing white. They are situated in the centre of the screen making it easier to see all of them and their dance routine. Furthermore, to make Gary look more out of place in the video, he is the tallest out of the four girls. The camera switches from the set with the dancers and the singer to the screen where the director watches the preview of the filming. The camera moves to a more medium shot of the dancers and Gary, but it focuses onto the dancers and so it cut Gary's head of the screen, emphasising that he is out of place. The dancer’s move of the set and a slow pan towards the director's expression, she is not happy with Gary because he cannot follow the dance moves. Medium shot to show each of the dancers, male and female holding the camera take prop in a line one behind the other. One by one the move behind the line to eventually get to Gary, lip synchronizing with the song and the camera zooms into his face to a close u shot to show him singing. By now we the audience are happy and content, we have finally got what we have wanted, to have Gary on the set acting a part in his music video. Bringing humour to the video, Gary is show dancing, the dancers are behind, he falls through the green board, and this shows that they have used it to edit the background. The camera pan to backstage to show the director put her head in her hands, showing that she is not happy with how Gary is acting. The camera goes back to before, showing the black set with the dancers holing torches and Jack the actor in the middle.

The close up of the singer in front of a white background shows lip synchronization with the song. The camera switches to a side medium shot to show that he was having a conversation with the director. The camera is slightly shaky showing that it was hand held. When he is singing, the lyrics seems as though he is talking to her saying "this is your life, this is your time". Low angle medium shot showing the Gary handcuffed to the poll on the set. Here we can only see his waist and his hand ties to the poll. By not showing his face it emphasises that he was not meant to be on the set. The camera shows a few repeated shots of the singer and dancers on the black set with torches, showing that they can carry on peacefully without Gary disturbing them on the set. Gary is still hand cuffed, he moves away but in doing so he pulls the board down showing the dancers getting changed, causing trouble again, adding more humour to the music video. The director grabs Gary away but they end up dicing in front of the camera, bringing a happy end to the music video. The dancers join them from behind, wearing what looks like to be their underwear. At this point there is slight lip synchronization by Gary but it is not clear. At the end of the music video, an extreme close up of the top half of Gary's face and then a long shot to show that he is hanging from a camera right at the top backstage. The music fades out and the without sound someone shouts "cut" marking the end of the music video.