Vandal - Mad As Hell

The video is a simple mime of a kid in school, who listening to the song, decides to get up stick his head out of the window and leave the boring establishment, leading the entire class and school with him onto the field, in a mass of people.

Music Video Technique - Atmosphere

Music Video is all about the feeling of the music in relation to the visuals, they can contrast for effect but personally a music video should express visually exactly what the song does. This can make it feel like a short film rather than a performance and hopefully come out better for it. For example loosely establishing characters and motifs, for example a sample from the video above the protagonist walks past a group of loitering young men, the atmospheric menace is strongest here in contrast to the visuals where a monster is seen and that is clever use of atmosphere.

Music Video Director Study -Jonathan Glazer

Jonathan Glazer is a music video and film director, named MTV DIrector of the year 1997 his videos are heralded for their originality and creativity playing with atmosphere and usually shelving the music in a video for a more intense visual experience. His views on people, desperate, lonely men struggling in a dark world are presented in many of his films in different ways. His use of camera tricks and ability to make believable characters is a testament to how music video can be used, he seems to create dramatic and interesting narratives simply out of a character based on the music and the mise en scene, as shown in the video above.

Ideas for Music Video

I've opted for a more delicate approach to the film, using high contrast and vague cut together shots to try and piece together a narrative. Using a mismatch bunch of visuals including a One SHot take that will play throughout to the song The First Day Of My Life by Bright Eyes. The original video for the song is a testament to the mood I wish to create but does not have the narrative elements I feel need to be expressed. The storyboarding and concept art will be published shortly...

This music video is an interesting experiment in costume and special effects, and really makes me think about how Green Screen can be used when forming my final idea for music video. The video showcases how costume and backdrop can be used, the seamless transitions between each stage of the video, just out of sight, is a good way to remove complicated shots from your video (cutting costs and post production) I will bear this in mind when I make my video, and think about the possibility of using costume and CGI backdrops.

Music Video Technique - Movement 2

This video (directed by Jonathan Glazer who will be explained in a later post) is a great experiment in moving the environment, using minimal special effects and a lot of effort from the crew, the room seems to move around the artist seamlessly and gracefully, the audience unsure what is coming or going just enjoys the film. The use of movement makes the video, in contrast to Only You video blogged previously these prove that with movement the effect can always be different and interesting, and movement is a serious aspect of music video I may use in my film.

Music Video Technique - Movement 1

Movement is an important part of music video, the human form can be shown in different ways, without abiding by normal film conventions, the same can be said for the environment. For example in the video for Portishead - Only You (directed by Chris Cunningham) the actors are filmed under water, rewound in different movements then using special effects placed in a street. The video, almost devoid of real narrative relies on the strange movements and placing of the actors to purvey a meaning, the strange lighting and "street underwater" is a triumph of movement in music video, a picture of how interesting camera work can lend to special effects, and use the human form to great effect.