Video Analysis 1

Blink 182 - What's My Age Again

Blink 182 - What's My Age Again

The video is of a band called Blink 182. They play pop punk music and have become known for they comical videos an stage shows. What's My Age Again follows these previous videos for humor but also has footage representing the lyrics. The majority of the video is footage of the band running naked through a town. The shots are edited slowly to build on the humor of the video. Each clip of the band running naked something mischievous happens. The length of the shots represent the anticipation of the audience of what they are going to do. These shots get slowly quicker the closer to the action happens. The actions represent the lyrics "What's My Age Again" as they do childish things. For example, push things out of peoples hands.

The first time we see that the band is naked is once they run past a young woman. When she is in the background she turns around and points. It is at this point we finally see the band naked. Up until then we just saw naked torsos. With the woman's reaction it reveals how the video will be from then on.

The rest of the video is of a performance of the band. They are again performing naked with their instruments covering their genitalia. The instruments are primary colours and the white room makes it almost seem as if it is a performance in a nursery. This again links with the title of the song, What's My Age Again.

The video helps build upon the image of the band to not be taken seriously and have a good time. I believe this is a successful tool of marketing and the video helps this well. The video encapsulates the mentality of children or teenagers about not caring. This is the reason for the band running naked and causing trouble. With the target audience of the band being 14 - 25 years old it appeals to each member of this age range. This is because the younger audience would find the running around naked funny whilst the older generation would be laughing at the reactions the band gets by the victims in the video and also find it funny imaging what reactions they would receive if they copied the video.

Conventions of a music video

Just like feature films there are forms and conventions for music videos. I have researched into these so that, as a group, we can use these to our advantage when creating our own music video. As well as this it will aid in my analysis of existing music videos. We did discuss these points as a group to help each other out as well.

As with films, particular genres of music have their own music video style and iconography, certain things such as setting, clothing and lighting are recognised symbols we expect to see. It is clear that music videos are used promotional material therefore it is often a demand for their to be close ups of these artists to make it clear who they are and promote them. Some artists develop their own star iconography, there is also likely to be a suggestion of voyeurism created in the video.

Lyrics

• As obvious as it might sound it is important to create a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
• They help to establish a general feeling or mood or a sense of subject matter
• Key lines may play a part in the visuals but rarely will you get a literal response

Music

• the video will always make use of the tempo of the track to drive the editing
• also may emphasise particular sounds from the track by foregrounding certain instruments

Genre

• Some pieces of music are difficult to categorise and therefore the video needs to emphasise its distinctive features, being reflected in the mise-en-scene
• certain themes will be appropriate in certain genres which will also be reiterated in camera and editing styles

Camera Work

• How the camera is used, how it is sequenced will impact upon its meaning
• camera angles, movement and distance done well will give it the dynamic feel

Editing

• It is important that you film to edit-the most common editing styles being fast cut montage, which encourages repeated viewings
• slow-pace editing will have gentle transitions which help to establish the mood.
• digital effects such as layering and transparency can often be used to good effect
• narrative is often fragmentary

Video Analysis

Before analysing some videos i am going to highlight the codes and conventions of music videos. In most music videos there is a visual link between lyrics and visuals, with the visuals amplifying or contradicting them.

Each genre of music has a particular conventions which you wish to see in the video for example, rock music it is likely you shall see a performance video focusing on long hair and instruments rather than a narrative used for the video.

With a performance video it is expected to have a lot of close ups of the artist to create a connection with the audience. Whilst mixing with other shots creating a sense of voyeurism which is used in many music videos especially when women are used to promote dance music.

Voyeurism is definitely a theme our group intends to use.

You Me At Six - Kiss and Tell

The video takes form of a house party scene of an age range between 18 to 25. It is a typical scene you would expect to see with this genre of music with long hair and unruly people. It is, for the most part, a performance video.

The start of the video, before the lyrics begin, is shots of the possible aftermath of the party with food on the floor and an untidy room. These shots are in time with the music building anticipation to see the band, possibly recreating the feeling before seeing the band at a live show. These cuts are faster than the majority of the rest of the video when it focuses on the performance of the song. Just before the lyrics begin there are Polaroid pictures along the amp of the band with the band name written along the bottom. This is a simple and effective way of introducing the band. It also represents the amateur status of the band because they are not signed to a major record label.

The camera tilts down as the lyrics begin along with a sound effect of the song.This brings in to shot the band and the crowd of people at the party watching the band performing. Straight away the camera focuses on the lead singer. However, the lead singer does not take a lead with camera time. This is spread quite evenly throughout the band members. The camera angle starts at the back of the crowd above their heads instantly giving the video a voyeuristic feel which is used throughout the video. Another example of this voyeuristic feel is with the shot through the door way. As the sequence progresses we slowly move to close ups of each band member. The link between lyrics and visuals is clear in this video. We can see this when the lead singer says "skin" and "clothes" as he pulls his skin and shirt when he sings.

As the chorus approaches we get less shots of the performance and more of the party scene which is fragmented. This symbalises a party as people would typically be drinking alcohol and when looking back on the night would not remember it as it unfolded and instead remember different parts throughout the night. By fragmenting the shots it also helps create a stronger sense of a real party by showing different people each time and making it seem a large event.

Once the chorus is over we are taken straight back in to the performance room with a close up of the guitar which is the most stand out point of the song at that moment. Unlike the first verse which was primarily all performance based it is much more fragmented this time with shots of the party going on. This helps make a sense of time passing meaning the whole party is likely to fit in a video only 3 and half minutes long.

This follows through the second chorus where the pace is taken down after. This is done by the camera following the movement of a passing balloon and then focusing on a guitar. The following sequence is much more performance based and focuses on the playing of the instruments and vocals. With all the tricks being shown that would be shown at a live performance. The pace of this sequence picks up as the drums become stronger. The main focus of the montage is someone preparing to hit a piñata. This is clearly connected with a party and helps build up suspense as the audience can tell the song will drop for a climax to the song once piñata is smashed.

The remainder of the video leads up to the aftermath of the party. This is done by food being thrown around and less civilised things happening such as a motor bike in the kitchen. To end this sequence an egg is thrown on to the camera lens as the final drum beat is hit.

This leads us to the end of the video where we are taken outside of the party scene to watch fireworks and more extravagant events happening. This leads to the feeling of a good ending to a good night that the party goers would have had. This is montaged with shots of the band playing still with a feeling of a smaller crowd. This could be due to people being outside or people leaving the party.

Ideas before chosen song

The video above is for the song "Take me to the hospital" by The Prodigy. This is a song we had considered to use for our coursework. Our idea for the song was to have a drug addict walking through different situations seeing different points in a drug trip. With the lyrics heavily influencing the video and the title being take me to the hospital the video would build up to the character being found and put into a ambulance.

The next video is for a song called Schism by Tool which was a possibility chosen by me. The video idea was similar to the idea for The Prodigy. It would again involve a drug user, however, due to the different style of the song a performance would have also been needed. This would have helped the video appeal to that target audience. Unfortunately my idea is very similar to the existing video for the song and we did not believe the idea was strong enough to stand out from other existing videos.

The idea for this song was a narrative video. The video would simply consist of a man walking to meet a woman at "505". This video would have followed the lyrics of the song very closely and been a slow pace picking up when the song drops. We did not choose this idea as a group because we did not think we could develop upon this idea well enough to make it interesting for a music video.

Initial Meetings

Once we had created some ideas from the list of possible artists we gathered again. Each member of the group pitched a possible idea. These ideas were questioned and thought about considering how feasible each idea was and how strong. The three strongest ideas emerged for 505 by Arctic Monkeys, Take Me To The Hospital by The Prodigy and Vicarious by Tool.

We discussed the ideas in depth and shared our opinions. We established there were aspects we liked from all ideas and could try to develop or include in stronger ideas. This is because we believed that the first ideas raised were not strong enough to create a convincing, industry standard, music promotional video.

With promise of creativity in the group we watched existing music videos to come up with ideas from a range of genres. Nirvana, Bloc Party and You Me At Six are examples of the videos we watched. Not only by watching existing videos were we gaining inspiration but we were also listening to the songs trying to develop a narrative or an idea we could interpret.

With a wide search with videos we found our most promising song and idea, Doubt by Delphic.

First Meeting

For our media coursework my group, Jordan Saville, Jack Osman and Louisa Herbert, and me have collectively decided to create a music video. For this we have to make a promotion package for a release of an album. This involves creating the final promotional video. Along with two of the following options: a website, a cover for the digipak (CD/DVD) or a magazine advert for the digipak.

With our group created and brief decided we started discussing ideas for our music video. Due to a varied taste in music we decided to list all artists that the individual would like to work with to make an unbias view on the final product. As a group we knew that the music did not have to necessarily be liked by all as long as the idea behind it was strong enough to believe that it will succeed. As a group we created a list of 26 artists and were delegated them as equally as possible to listen and create an idea for as many as possible to discuss when we next met.

Formal Brief

My A2 coursework portfolio must be:

• a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts;

• a presentation of your research, planning and evaluation in electronic format(s)

The portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:

• Video
• Print
• Web-based
• Audio
• Games software

Chosen Brief

A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band;
• a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).