Textual Analysis of "brainstorm" by Arctic Monkeys

This Muisc Video uses alot of elements for a successful music video for the audiences eye. The use of colours to make parts of the video to stand out is very similar to what our group wanted to create in our music video.

Mes en Scene: each member of the band looks the part of the genre music they're performing, Indie. This creates a good look to the music that they're playing to provide their target audience with an influential look, which is very modern in todays fashion. The women dancers are wearing very basic clothing which reveals alot within the movements they're doing in the dance routine which is a good use of goodwin 6, an eye for the female body, this is a big factor on most music videos, however what i found most interesting was that you dont see oftenly female bodies or even provogative dancing because its more seen in R'n'B music therfore by using it in a different genre it makes the video stand out to the other indie style music videos. The dancers represent the musics beats, because if you watch carefully you can see their movements respond to the musics rhytm which aids the movement of the music video by becoming fast paced. Another interesting part in this video is that the settings used are very strange and obscure which is very effective for the upbeat rhythm of the music, in my opinion i get this feel of an asylym as though wherever you go you cant escape the "brainstorm" that is being created by the bands music.
the Arctic Monkeys are a very popular band and the goodwin 6 element of high performance levels of the band playing, is very important. by the band performing in their video it provides a huge influence on the audience for those who look up to them and also the audience want that notion to see the performers play because it creates an atmosphere like a concert does.

camera work: there is a lot of close up shots especially on parts where the band is playing, this is effective so that the audience get some form of involvement in the music. at the beginning of the video there is a shot where parts of the picture is cut out into a hectagon shape, this creates an immediate edgy feel to the video straight away, indicating that the video is going to be an indie genre because all that the hectagon shape holds is the band waiting to perform.

editing: the edits used are very obvious, they use alot of straight cuts to keep the video fast paced, it also fits well with the music because its fast paced and every time a new beat is audible the cut changes to another. This helps makes the video flow, even though clips are chopped into sectors whilst being intwined with other clips. This appears strange however, it does work because it relates really well to the title of the song and for its conceptive factor. Another edit used in the video is the great use of animation, especially of the womans mouth, where you see the movement under neath the muscle and skin, this would have required alot of effort and work, which makes the video become one of them high technified succesful videos.

Lighting: the lighting changes drastically through out the video, similarly to the cuts. they use a great amount of colour when the women dancers are performing, this makes them stand out because they're significance is big in the video because 1) they are unusual for their style of music 2) they represent the beat and the colour change helps represent the beats importance to their movement and 3) the colour is a huge comparison to the light used when the band play which is a bright light. the white light connotes their power and significance in the video as they are the high performers the "stars" and therfore the white light is their stardom and success.

Here is an image of a fruit bowl which we first played around with. This image was a good first idea, because of its basic shapes and outstanding colours. however we found this to original to use as our final digipak idea and decided to explore futher with different images.

digipak progress

myself and oli have made progress with the design of our music video digipak.
we have used the image of a fruit bowl which we downloaded onto the mac to use in the software photoshop. We made the background black and cut around the fruit bowl and placed the cropped picture over our black background. We then played around with the colour of the fruit bowl to make it a bit wacky and fun, we changed the colour and contrast to make the fruit bowl gold. The gold effect has created a feel to the digipak because it makes the fruit bowl appear ancient but fresh at the same time. we wanted to make the cover look unique and different as we didnt want the average looking fruits in a bowl,otherwise the digipak and music video would clash.
lastly we designed a similar text to the "Vampire Weekend" style to keep some of its originallity.
Me and Oli definately had some fun creating our first draft of the digipak, however it did come along with some difficulties. We were fustrated with alot of the tools involved with photoshop, but we learnt by asking advice and exploring the software ourselves we would achieve the best for our digipak.

Latest Update

In the past couple of days we have been working with past filming clips on the school's mac's to get an idea of how to adapt with the Mac's programmes to make our music video to the best of our abillity.
We will be using like every other group "final cut" which is a software on the Macs where we can edit filming to create a brilliant piece of media work. we have looked at past students work that have also used this software and have created some outstanding work, therfore we can be inspired by the work done by "final cut" into our music video.
recently we have looked at transitions and the different effects that we can use to create this fun, enthusiastic, edgy music video that we hope to share with other media students. we have played around with the transitions and effects with old clips so that we know clearly what to use with our clips when we come to edit. there is a lot to choose from which gives us an advantage to have fun with editing our video.

Textual Analysis Jay-Z 99 "problems"

We studied this music video in class when reviewing a range of Mark Romanek’s past work, and we came across some good use of camerawork and lighting which we would like to involve similarly in our “A punk” video.

Mes en scene:
The lyrics of the song portray a very specific genre of music, rap. Obviously the style of song is very different to our choice of music, however the use of space with his settings interested us to influence this in our music video. Romanek has taken great care of referring jay-z’s lyrics to the setting therefore sets the narrative of this music piece in New York City, which the lyrics refer to, a stereotypical gangster lifestyle. To address their status in jay-z’s well known hit “99 problems”, Romanek makes good use of props by this idea of gun use and money which is what we connote with a gangster. You can also get an idea of this lifestyle by the policeman who stops jay-z in his “pimped out” car with money in his boot which shows the audience the idea of drug dealing which also is connoted by gangsters. Jay-z is also portrayed as this gangster who is known globally as successful through his talent and has out beat his past life which we see when his name and face is on a televised pin bored in central park. From this video we have been inspired by the use of great detail of setting use as it does make that bigger difference when you can clearly see that time and effort has been done to get the best shots, therefore Romanek’s work has been inspiring, even though it’s a different genre song.

Editing and Lighting:
through out the music video Romanek has kept it black and white which is very effective especially in this style of music, because it can be used to refer to the idea of comparison of black and white culture which it is in some ways in this video. It also can be done to make the video edgy and also to make parts stand out, such as shadows. This helps with the choice of lighting too as Romanek has used a mixture of low key lighting high key lighting to create a particular appearance to the audience’s interest. Low key lighting is visible in parts of the video when danger is suggested for example; when the police stop jay-z in the car in a mysterious setting of blocks (flats) and metal staircases with “garbage bins” a stereotypical New York City setting. The low key lighting helps connote danger and crime.

Camerawork:
Romanek uses a lot of tilt shots so that the camera appears to be low and looking up at the big idle Jay-z himself, this gives jay-z as an artist power and status towards the audience. Tilt shots are very effective therefore could be fun to play around with in our media piece. Romanek also uses a great amount of close ups which is for obvious reasons by giving the audience clear shots of the star “Jay-z” this relates to one of Goodwin’s 6 of the record labels honor of the artist.

Textual analysis: Daft Punk - Around The World

I myself have found this Music Video really inspiring the minute I watched it in class when analyzing Michel Gondry’s work. Personally I think this is one of the best Music Videos Gondry has done because it’s unbelievably mesmerizing with the use of color, lighting, props, costumes and its concept. His ideas brought in this video has inspired our group to do something a little unusual for our Music Video by addressing the audience by using “wacky” costumes and to use visual effects.

Mise en Scene
Gondry has taken great amount of thought and precision in the way this Video was to look he noted his distinctive structure as, “I realized how genius and simple the music was. Only five different instruments, with very few patterns, each to create numerous possibilities of figures. Always using the repetition, and stopping just before it's too much." He represents each beat of the song with an individual or group of dancers, which builds up as the beats build up. He then gets the dancers to demonstrate the song by movement in a contract space. The space provided has been used really well, because it appears to the audience as though there is no way out of this world, which represents the title of the song. Gondry’s style and flavor is written all over this Music Video because it is an example of a surreal setting. The Lighting in this Video is very under lit, which could represent the “Bizarre” costumes as it wouldn’t have a huge effect if it was bright, because the darkness reflects on the performer’s status in the video. The use of color makes the video seem fun and lively, and it also represents the rhythm of the song as it’s very upbeat.

Camerawork
The song “Around the world” has influenced the camerawork used in the music video; Michel Gondry has used a lot of rotation shots to reinforce the word “around.” This shows relevance to the song and also makes the production smaller because we feel trapped by watching it, which is Michel’s idea of making the audience feel involved in the world created in the video. The use of rotation shots also help the repetition used as the Daft Punk soundtrack uses repetitive lyrics and beats. He also uses a lot of close ups especially on the groups i.e. the skeletons. This gives the audience a close up view of what is happening and what the group’s involvement is to the song, which we figure that their purpose is to represent a beat and rhythm. Mid shots are popular in this video too which are used primarily so that all dancers/groups have an impact, this would be when more than one beat is audible.

Lighting
The use of lighting is very effective as Michel Gondry has used bright on dark lighting. The use of bright colors makes uplift to the song as it is a upbeat song

Directors Study - Michel Gondry

Born in 1963 he grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') and several singles until their separation in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. This led to commissions for other artists around the world, including Massive Attack. He also made a lot of commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and Levi - the latter making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off commercial.

Gondry’s style
Gondry has a very unique style, he loves the idea of surreal settings and visual effects. His music videos have been portrayed as very smart, as he likes to perfect the music with visuals. He is known to make good use of space with the rhythm of music, to make the video itself appealing to the audience. A great example of Gondry’s work where he has cleverely done this, is Daft Punk “around the world” he uses all the dancers in the video individually to represent a beat, he also uses his space well by making the space appear “round” to connote the title of the song.

Facts

In his video clips and commercials, he was a pioneer for a lot of things. For example the video clip he made for IAM (Je danse le Mia) was the first video clip using the morphing technics. And above all he invented the technique of several cameras taking pictures in the same time around somebody. This technique was used for the first time in a commercial for insurance, then in Björk's "Army of Me" video clip and in The Matrix (1999).
Gondry is a musician which may of helped inspire his passion for music. He has shown his talent by appearing in Kanye West’s video "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (2005) playing the drums. "Before he lost the shop my father gave me a drum kit and my brother a bass guitar. We formed a couple of bands together, that played punk rock...or maybe it was more like New Wave...and that's how I got into music. Then when I left Versailles to go to art college in Paris I formed the band Oui Oui with some friends from college."

His 1994 "Drugstore" spot for Levi's 501 Jeans holds the record for most awards won by a TV commercial.

Personal Quotes

“Sometimes it's better to have less money and more freedom.”
“Every great idea is on the verge of being stupid.”


Music Videos

Daft Punk “Around the world”
White Stripes “Fell in love with a girl”
“Dance Tonight" Paul McCartney (2007)
Kanye West “Heard em say”
Kylie Minogue “come into my world”
Radio Head “knives Out”
The chemical Brothers “Star Guitar”
The Rolling Stones “Like a Rolling Stone”