INTRODUCTION
When it comes to promoting the next biggest thing or a great new comeback single, there is no better way to go about it than by releasing a music video. But things have certainly changed within the last five years. With the boom in popularity of website such as YouTube and Daily Motion to the affordability of the once futuristic video capable mobile phone, there are now more ways than ever to get the music video out there.
Of course, this can create problems. The music industry is almost unrecognizable to how it was at the turn of the century. In 1999 it would have been ridiculous to think that a song like the YouTube viral hit ‘Chocolate Rain’ would have been seen and heard by 58 million viewers, yet here I am listening to it now as I write this. This just goes to show that absolutely anybody can release whatever they like and it is easier than ever to get it out to a mass audience.
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| In a way, Chocolate Rain is one of the most succesful music videos of all time. |
This has forced artists to rethink their strategy when it comes to making music videos. Artists and Bands aren’t getting the kind of money that was being thrown at them to make music videos like in the 90’s anymore and why would they? All the ‘Chocolate Rain’ video involves is one shot of a man singing into a microphone and the staggering numbers speak for themselves…
VINCENT MORRISET CRITIQUE
Vincent Morriset is perhaps one of the more innovative music video directors around today. Based in Montreal Canada, Morriset began making a name for him by working with an indie rock band, fellow Montrealers Arcade Fire.
In January 2008, Arcade Fire announced the release of a new single, ‘Black Mirror’ from their forthcoming new album ‘Neon Bible’. On their website, a new video appeared for the single directed by Olivier Groul and Tracy Maurice. However, it was an interactive version of the video that caught most people’s attention.
Vincent Morisset was the man behind the interactive version. Although the visual experience did not deviate from the original by Groul and Maurice, the viewer was able to interact with the audio of the song. By pressing the keys 1 through 6 on the keyboard, the viewer could turn off or on various different parts of the audio, allowing them remix the song.
Whilst this was initially fun to begin with, it has many faults. When pressing one of the keys, the response of the audio is not quick enough to ensue a clean transition. Another thing I have noticed is that the different tracks start to drift apart from each other as far as timing is concerned and before long the audio track becomes a bit of a mess. I thought this might have been just on my computer but upon trying a few other computers I noticed this was a common problem.
The main problem, in my opinion, with the interactive version of Black Mirror is that it takes almost all of the attention away from the original music video by Groul and Maurice. Whilst busy playing about with the interactive audio, I found out that I had not really paid any attention to the video. I think this renders the visual experience of the video ineffectual.
Vincent Morisset’s association with Arcade Fire did not end there. With the release of the new album also came a new tour DVD, Miroir Noir, which Morisset directed. But it was with the video for their next single, ‘Neon Bible’, with which Morisset achieved acclaim.
The video was once again interactive, but this time instead of being able to play with the audio, the viewer was now able to interact with the video.
The video featured the band’s singer, Win Butler’s head singing the lyrics to the song for the most part, whilst his hands were also visible. By clicking on either his hands or head at various points throughout the song, the viewer was able to control certain aspects of the video.
This video received critical acclaim and it’s easy to see why. Unlike the ‘Black Mirror’ interactive video, this video didn’t seem to have many faults on the technical side of it. It was entertaining throughout and the concept didn’t become as much of a novelty as quickly as ‘Black Mirror’ due to the video constantly changing. The pacing was steady enough that once you had seen what one part of the video had to offer, the next was already in motion, thus keeping the attention of the viewer.
What was most important to me though, was that it didn’t detract from the actual song, in which it was meant to promote. With ‘Black Mirror’, the bugs in the programming resulted with me stopping the video before I had got to the end of the song, not good when trying to promote a band’s comeback single.
Arcade Fire & Vincent Morisset’s ‘Neon Bible’ project has since been listed as one of the top 6 milestones in the entire 25 year history of music videos, alongside videos by Michael Jackson and Madonna. The list may have been compiled by the Montreal Gazette, but I think they are absolutely right.
Here is a video I did with Ross and Josh based on Vincent Morriset's Neon Bible.
Here is a video I did with Ross and Josh based on Vincent Morriset's Neon Bible.
ABSTRACT REPRESENTATION OF A MUSIC SCORE
For this project I will be working with Ross. After viewing various music videos in which the video doesn’t necessarily tell a story, instead depicting the music in a visual form, we were told to make a similar video lasting between 10 seconds to 30 seconds long. We have chosen to make a video to the song ‘I Like Food’ by the Descendants, which is 17 seconds in length.
‘I Like Food’ is a very fast hardcore punk song. It has comical value and due to its speed also creates a challenge for us to match the images to the song.
We have chosen to use a mix of live action video and pixilation for the video. The pixilation will involve a Ginsters slice being built up piece by piece to the rhythm of the drums. We counted 40 snare beats in the drums, 32 of which we will create individual images. We will take a away a piece of the Ginsters slice in each of the 32 shots and then reverse the images in Adobe Premiere to give the impression that the slice is building itself up. We will shoot the slice against a plain surface so we can take away the background using Adobe Photoshop.
The live footage will begin with myself giving Ross a cup of water, which he will throw against the wall in disgust. This is when the song will begin. The live footage will then cut to Ross’ face and upper body singing the lyrics to the song, which involve the lines “I like food, food tastes good”. Meanwhile his hands will be held out as if he is holding something. This is where the pixilation of the Ginster’s slice will be placed, as if it is building itself before his very eyes. When the song comes to an abrupt end, Ross will move his hands towards his mouth as if he is quickly eating the whole slice and the video will end.
EVALUATION
The final result of the video was very similar to our original idea, however the most notable difference is that we didn’t use a Ginsters Slice in the end. This was due to the fact that we didn’t have a Ginsters Slice but we had Jaffa Cakes and Mini Cheddars instead. This seemed like a better idea as we could have a pile of snacks building up instead of the Slice.
Another thing that was changed is that the pile of food didn’t ’t build up to the beats of the drums, instead building up to each individual lyric of the song. However we still used the beat of each snare drum by creating a border around the video using Jaffa Cakes and Mini Cheddars which would rotate around the screen to the drums.
One problem we had wasin editing. We thought we had worked out how many different shots of the pile of food we would need, but when editing we realised that we had not taken enough. Therefore we edited the footage of Ross throwing the water at the floor back into the video towards the end. We sped it up to match the song and repeated it a few times before coming back to Ross’ face to finish the video.
Overall I am quite happy with the video. It was pretty close to how we originally envisioned it. Next time I will double check everything to make sure we have what we need before going into editing, such as the number of images needed for the pixilation.
ONE SHOT
ONE SHOT
The one shot video is where you use one continuous unedited recording to perhaps tell a story, or maybe capture a moment in time, or even in an experimental video.
The opening to the French film Irreversible by director Gaspar Noe is a great example of being experimental with a one shot video. As the camera constantly spins around with the nauseating audio track, it sets you up perfectly for the rest of the film.
The thing I like with the one shot music video is it’s relation to real life. I feel that when it comes to making videos, it can be the most accurate and raw form. Its portrayal of real life cannot be matched by any other. Our eyes and what we see is like a one shot video, never cutting to anything else, not edited in the slightest. Life itself only has one shot. Whatever happened, happened and when creating a one shot video it can be exactly the same.
Of course, not all one shot music videos are entirely accurate portrayals of real life. Michel Gondry has used the one shot technique on more than one occasion when directing music videos. Michel Gondry has used it 6 separate times on videos by various aritsts ranging from Cibo Matto & Lucas to the likes of Radiohead, The White Stripes and Kylie Minogue.
Arguably the most successful use of the one shot music video is ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice Girls, directed by Jhoan Camitz. The video was heavily promoted across various television channels and shows across the United Kingdom which sparked huge interest in the group. Although whether the success of the group was due to the use of the one shot technique in the music video is unlikely, it proved that it is a popular and common technique used by the most popular artists as well as the more obscure ones.
Here is the music video I made in one shot...
